Letting Go
by Ophelia Heller
Summary: Christian Grey was happily married but his wife has been gone for three years, leaving him with their daughter and an inherited best friend in Anastasia Steele. Ana's life is chaos; she's ready to settle down but not with her boyfriend, and the gallery she owns is in danger of being shut down. Will the pair ever realise they're meant to be much more than friends?
1. Chapter 1

_CG 18.27: Where are you?_

 _AS 18.32: Just leaving. Sorry! Minor crisis occurred while I was getting my coat._

 _CG 18.33: Are you ever on time?_

 _AS 18.40: No. Neither are you. Getting in car now._

 _CG: 18.42: See you soon._

As she was stopped at the first of what she assumed would be five thousand red lights – because she never caught a break when she was late – Ana checked her appearance in the rear-view mirror of the purple smart car Christian always teased her for having. She wasn't a complete disaster today, although her dark hair was piled on her head held in place with a band that threatened to break from the thickness of it and she quickly took it down realising she hated it. She rolled her eyes at herself for being so changeable – she'd thought it was nice that morning.

The beeping from the car behind indicated she had zoned out enough to miss the light changing and she quickly started driving again, pulling an embarrassed face as she did. Christian's apartment was only ten minutes from her gallery even with the lights working against her.

She punched in the code she knew by heart for the basement parking. It took her two tries to back into the space without being on the line. Ana hated that she was such a terrible driver. She checked her phone as she rushed to the elevator which was about to leave, and in a rare turn of luck she managed to get in and smiled at Christian's neighbour, an old lady who she saw frequently but never remembered the name of. She always meant to ask Christian. She checked her phone as she was fairly confident it had buzzed while she was driving.

 _MB 18.51: What time are you home tonight?_

 _AS: 19.01: Dinner with Christian, home at 10, 11 latest._

 _MB: 19.01: Have fun!_

Ana let herself in with the key Christian had given her. She had been very pleased that she had earned a key until she had found out that he only gave it to her because her habit of ringing the doorbell three times in a row irritated him so much.

"Ana!" She heard a small voice exclaim and she smiled as she shut to door behind her and found herself staring into the overly lavish living room that belonged to her best friend. She had been there hundreds of times now, but she was still impressed by the extravagance of his three-story penthouse. Of course it was completely unnecessary, only two of them lived there.

"Hi, sweetie!" Ana said as she felt two little arms grabbing hold of her leg. She laughed and lifted up the little girl hanging on to her and hugged her close. She heard footsteps and looked over to the doorway, still grinning, eyes locking on the figure that stood there.

"Ana."

"God, you always seem so much less pleased to see me than Evie does." Ana complained mockingly, rolling her eyes at him. Evie giggled and copied her as she played with Ana's long hair with one small, chubby hand.

"Stop teaching her bad habits." Christian walked into the room and Ana put his daughter down so she could give him a hug that he had long since stopped trying to reject. The pair sat down together on the sofa and Ana let Evie clamber onto her lap where she sat quite happily.

"That's never going to happen. I like being a bad influence, it's why she likes me so much." Ana said as she fished a bag of the alphabet sweets that she was so fond of out of her purse and popped an 'S' into her mouth and looked to Christian for silent approval before shaking the bag a little so she could present Evie with an 'E'. The three year old clapped. Christian knew Ana had to special order those sweets from England. She would never share them with him, but she loved his daughter deeply and would never dream of not sharing them with her.

"She likes you because she gets sweets before bedtime from you." Christian said shaking his head. "Speaking of which, are you putting her to bed or taking over the cooking?"

"I'll put her to bed, you cook ridiculously complicated dishes and I'll only burn it if I try to take over now." Christian didn't argue with her, they both knew she could only cook if a dish had three ingredients or less. He stood from the couch and kissed his daughter on the top of her head.

"Goodnight sweetheart."

"Night night Daddy!" Evie said, giving him a little wave as he walked into the kitchen.

Ana took her into the bathroom and brushed her teeth gently, then went into the bedroom and dressed the little girl in the yellow duck printed pyjamas that she had bought her a few weeks ago before she put her in the little bed that was tucked against the wall of her purple room, the one Ana had helped to paint with Christian while his very pregnant wife had sat in the rocking chair calling out baby names that she was fond of. They had decided on Evelyn when she and Christian had been in the middle of doing the ceiling and a blob of paint fell next to it in the book. After chastising the pair for being clumsy, Vivienne had called it a sign. Christian wrote it off as Ana's lack of DIY skills. Ana had laughed and said it was probably both. They'd told her they wanted her to be the godmother when they went out to dinner that night.

She missed Vivienne badly on nights like this, when she put to bed the little girl that knew her, a family friend, better than she had ever known her mother. Ana kissed Evie on the top of her head. The little girl was dozing off already, she always did the second her head touched the pillow. As she left the room she wiped away the little tear that had formed under her eye and marched into the kitchen holding her head high.

"Red or white wine?" she asked loudly to announce her presence. Christian looked around.

"White, we're having chicken." Ana nodded and took one off the wine rack. She didn't care what one it was, all the wine he kept was expensive and delicious. She popped the cork and left it on the sideboard to breathe, he was always telling her off for pouring it too early. Ana didn't know enough about wine to taste the difference. "Would you get me the plates out?" Christian asked her, and she had to smile at his politeness. She took two plates out of the cupboard and while he dished the chicken onto them both she plated the vegetables and potatoes. The pair smiled at each other as they carried their plates to the table and sat opposite each other. They never bothered to use the dining room.

"How's work?" Ana asked him as they took their seats. He smiled, knowing full well she didn't want to be bored by the intricacies of it. She took a mouthful of the food while he spoke.

"It's going well at the moment. I had to take Evie in yesterday because her nanny was ill – safe to say she is far more popular than me around the office." Ana chuckled and complimented his cooking before she responded to what he said.

"That doesn't surprise me at all, Evie is much nicer than you and she probably yells at them less."

"I don't yell at my employees Ana, I merely correct their mistakes."

"Loudly while threatening to fire them."

"The message doesn't sink in otherwise." Ana smiled and shook her head at him.

"I'm just saying, if I spoke to my artists the way you speak to your employees I would have a revolution on my hands."

"I've heard you yelling at people for missing deadlines."

"Well okay, sometimes maybe. Definitely less than you do." Christian chuckled and she took another bite as she tried to refrain from rolling her eyes at him. This was just how they were, how they always had been, familiar, happy to sit and chide at each other without either of them taking the remarks to heart.

"How's Michael?" Ana smiled to herself. Christian was always polite enough to ask after her boyfriend even though when he had met him he hadn't liked him at all. Very rarely did he like any of the boyfriends she had, something Ana was convinced her had learnt off Vivienne who had always found a fault with them before Ana did.

"I think he's going to propose." Christian raised his eyebrows.

"Well that's a first." he commented, not giving away anything other than surprise which Ana supposed was warranted. Over the few years that she had known him she tended to have very short relationships, easily finding unsolvable problems with the men she chose and kicking them to the kerb. He had been very surprised when Ana announced she was moving in with Michael a few months ago. Ana thought he maybe should have seen this coming since she was genuinely serious about this one. "Are you going to say yes?"

"I suppose so. But I don't know. I'm happy the way things are, and I'm not sure I want to get married at all but I think it might be important to him..." Ana realised she was rambling but to his credit Christian was attentively listening to every work. "Thinking about it is very stressful."

"You don't have to marry him, Ana."

"I'm aware. And when I remember how excited Vivienne was when she realised you were proposing to her I definitely have doubts. I mean, she was thrilled, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she was going to say yes to you." They were at a place now where they could mention Vivienne without it feeling uncomfortable.

"But you've never been like that with relationships, Ana." Christian reminded her. "Vivienne was completely enamoured with the idea of marriage and being in love, her life revolved around it. It's only natural for you to feel differently about this because for you having somebody to spend your life with is far lower on your list of priorities. For you it's a nice addition to your life but you're never going to allow your life and your happiness to depend on another person."

"You've known me too long." Ana complained with a small grin spreading over her face.

"No, you're just a very easy person to get a read on. Would you like seconds?" Ana looked down at her mostly empty plate and gave him a look.

"Christian, the day I say no to more food is the day you know something is seriously wrong with me." He laughed and collected both of their plates and brought them back through with slightly smaller portions than they had had before. Ana didn't feel too guilty about eating like a pig – Christian was an excellent cook and she had been so busy that day that she had forgotten to eat lunch (something she would have pretended to have done anyway to make herself feel better). Her phone buzzed and she picked it up, happy to see it was a message from Kate.

 _KK 20.55: Do you still want to grab lunch tomorrow? Book is stressing me out!_

"Have you heard from her recently?" Christian asked as he laid the plate in front of her and sat back in his seat. Ana was busy responding with an affirmative and not really paying attention.

"Yeah, I'm texting her now." Ana put her phone down and saw him frowning as realisation dawned on her. "Wait, I thought you meant Kate but obviously you meant…" Christian nodded. "I'm not texting her now!" Ana assured him quickly. "I'm texting Kate about lunch. No, I haven't heard from her for like three months. Last I heard she was in Belgium."

"Belgium." Christian repeated, as though trying out the word for the first time. Ana smiled at him apologetically. "I've never even been to fucking Belgium." he hissed as he jabbed his plate with the knife, making Ana jump. He saw her discomfort and looked guilty immediately. "Sorry, Ana."

"It's hard. I understand." She took his hand and squeezed it. Ana had never been excellent at comforting people but she hoped it helped somewhat.

"Let's talk about anything else." Christian suggested and she thought that was a very good idea.

Ana always washed up after they had dinner because it meant she got to pick what they listened to and even though Christian insisted that he had a 'wide taste in music' he only ever seemed to make her listen to some classical piece which wasn't fun to dance to. Today she selected The Darkness because 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' had been in her head since she woke up. Christian didn't mime the guitar solo the way she did but he hummed along and she took that as a sign of his enjoyment. He never quite got as into things as she did. It was probably for the best.

She kissed him on the cheek when she left saying: "Text me if you need a babysitter and let me know when you're free next week." Ana knew he would take her up on the second offer, never the first mainly because he didn't go anywhere. 'She has one absentee parent, I'm not going to be another one' Christian had told her when she asked why he never took her up on the offer, insisting it wouldn't bother her. It was strange that before Vivienne had given birth she had worried about Christian as a father, not because he wouldn't love his daughter but because he was always so busy. Ana's lack of faith had been placed in the wrong friend entirely and she actually felt a little guilty about that. There was Christian, doing his best to provide for his daughter while still making sure he was home as much as he could be and Vivienne was prancing around Belgium without even thinking of them.

Ana drove home; the only CD she had in her car was a Carrie Underwood one that she had bought years ago but she was quite happy to sing loudly and out of key to Jesus Take the Wheel.


	2. Chapter 2

_"I'm going to talk to him."_

 _"Viv, you can't!" Ana squealed, trying to giggle quietly. She knew that the pair of them being upgraded to first class on their flight had been a grievous mistake on the part of the airline. Ana was trying to behave herself, but her best friend was apparently less concerned. Ana silently blamed the three glasses of complimentary champagne she had already managed to drink._

 _"Why not? I just want to ask if it's really him and then we can tell everyone we were on the same flight as millionaire Christian Grey."_

 _"Only a millionaire? I thought you'd aim higher. Billionaire at the very least."_

 _"Give him time."_

 _"You have no shame! You can't just go up to someone in first class and demand an autograph."_

 _"I'm not going to demand an autograph." Vivienne corrected her, pulling out her compact and fluffing up her hair, blowing herself a kiss. "I'm going to seduce him." Ana groaned and put her head in her hands, still trying not to laugh too loudly. She was paranoid about the flight attendants giving them the side-eye when they walked past. It was pretty obvious that neither of them belonged in first class, they looked like the students they were even if Vivienne preferred to pretend that she wasn't. "The art student and the billionaire. Sounds like a romance novel."_

 _"Sounds like delusion." Ana muttered, earning herself a sharp glare from her friend._

 _"Ana, that's not the positive attitude I'm looking for. Please be more supportive."_

 _"I'm pretty sure it's not even him."_

 _"If not then I can date his lookalike and that will be an equally good story." Vivienne insisted, finally standing up. "Wish me luck!" She marched over. Ana hid her face in her hands, not wanting to be guilty by association. Finding that wasn't enough, she got up, refusing to look over, shielding her eyes as she darted into the bathroom. When she came back Vivienne was back in her seat and Ana grinned smugly at the indication that her friend had failed._

 _"Rejected? It's not him and it's actually a paper salesman?"_

 _"Quite the opposite actually, it is him and we're going to dinner when we land." Vivienne looked over and smiled at him and he smiled back. Ana turned scarlet._

 _"You are unbelievable."_

 _"Unbelievably good, yes."_

* * *

Ana woke up breathless and sheened with a layer of sweat and cursing Vivienne for having turned such a happy memory into a nightmare. She was on the sofa, she had fallen asleep watching Fatal Attraction. She often wondered if it said something about her that her favourite film was about such a twisted romance. Could it even be called a romance? It was the ending gunshot that had woken her up. Usually that dream went on for a lot longer. She thought about going into the bedroom but that would mean waking Michael up and that would probably mean talking to him. She missed living alone.

She pulled the blanket from the top of the couch down and spread it over herself before she put the film back to the beginning and switched the light off. She found it comforting to fall asleep to the sound of voices even if in two hours or so the same gunshot would jolt her awake. It was probably for the best, once she had one dream about Vivienne she tended to have them for the rest of the night.

 _Vivienne had wandered off, likely to ensure her makeup was perfect, leaving Ana stuck at the luggage carousel with Christian Grey. Vivienne had found him again when she got off the plane and started talking to him – Ana couldn't bring herself to mind, Vivienne was a true romantic and for the entire spring break they'd been away for she had neglected her desire to find a holiday romance in lieu of keeping Ana company._

 _"I feel like I should apologise on behalf of her…" Ana said as soon as Vivienne was far enough away that she couldn't hear._

 _"Oh no, not at all, I'm very pleased she came over to talk to me. She's very…" Christian trailed off, searching for a word. Ana was often similarly lost for words when trying to describe Vivienne. "Enigmatic? In a very charming way. She's not my usual type but there's something very compelling about her confidence." Ana knew exactly what he meant, it was one of the reasons she had been so drawn to Vivienne on her first day of school. An had been quiet and bookish and Vivienne had marched over to her and asked what she was reading and made sure Ana had someone to sit with at lunch. They'd been inseparable ever since._

 _"She'll be pleased to hear that." Ana glanced at the carousel right on time. "Oh there are our cases!" She looked around for Vivienne who had disappeared. "Do you mind giving me a hand? Hers is the purple one next to my blue one if you don't mind grabbing it."_

 _"Of course not." Christian assured her. He was very friendly and well-spoken, not to mention very attractive. Ana was pleased for her friend. She really hoped this worked out for her; she wouldn't mind having someone like Christian around frequently. The pair stepped forward and Ana grabbed her bag and watched Christian take Vivienne's. He gave her a smiled as she placed her case on the floor and handed Vivienne's to her. It was a duffel bag so Ana took it with both arms, marvelling at how light Vivienne had managed to pack for once. Wait, this was wrong. Vivienne had been back by this point, Ana hadn't taken her bag, she had offered to take it from Christian herself and he had insisted on carrying it to the cab while Vivienne praised what a gentleman he was. Where was she?_

 _Ana looked down and saw she was no longer holding the bag but a baby, tiny, sleeping, and wrapped in a soft pink blanket._

 _"I don't think she's coming home." Ana looked up and saw she was still with Christian but they were in his living room, not the airport, sitting on the couch. She couldn't see very well and as she felt a trickle down her face she realised her sight was blurred with tears. "What do I do, Ana?"_

 _He sounded so small, so lost._

* * *

Ana woke with a jolt, sitting straight up, struggling to find breath, filled with the urge to call Christian and make sure he was okay even though what she was remembering was three years ago. As she reached for her phone to check the time she realised she was shaking badly. Just after six am. Ana was still tired but she didn't fancy attempting sleep again, instead she got up and went into the kitchen to put the kettle on. She needed tea. Usually she would put music on, rarely able to motivate herself for even the simplest of tasks without some kind of backing track, but she didn't want to wake Michael up, she knew it was his day off and she wanted him to have a lie in. She returned to her makeshift bed to drink it and switched the TV on, flipping through channels before just deciding to watch the local news. They were doing a piece about Christian which he hadn't bothered to tell her about, but that was probably because he did so many he thought she wouldn't be interested in all of them. He was wrong. He was wearing the tie that she had given him two Christmases ago.

 _AS 6.38: Saw you on the news. I like your tie. Remind me which excellent friend gave that to you?_

She knew he'd be up by now, Evie never slept longer than half six which was good because Christian needed to be heading to work by eight and he liked to be the one to give her breakfast and get her dressed. She could picture exactly where he would be having spent many nights there over the past three years, he'd be at his coffee machine cursing it for never working properly, trying to get a straight answer out of Evie as to what she wanted to eat. His phone would be beside him and he would drop everything to reply to her because he always did.

 _CG 6.41: I believe it was you. Sorry I forgot to tell you it was on._

 _AS 6.45: Well thankfully my psychic abilities kicked in and I was watching anyway ;) Say good morning to Evie for me!_

 _CG 6.46: She says good morning back._

Ana didn't text a reply because she knew he'd be sitting down to eat with his daughter now and he didn't like checking his phone too much when he was around her. He liked to be present. Ana thought it was amazingly commendable of him to be so entirely dedicated to his daughter. She would text him again later in the day, before midday if there was a crisis or slight after if there wasn't so as to catch him on his lunch break.

A while later she crept into the bedroom to get dressed and put on a little makeup. As she often did when she stood in front of the bathroom mirror she wondered if she should get her hair cut short. It would look nice around chin length, she thought, but she changed her mind so often about hairstyles that cutting it short seemed destined to be something she regretted days later.

She manged her whole morning routine without waking Michael and she snuck to her car. When she arrived at her gallery it took ten minutes of sitting in there before she could force herself to go in.

* * *

AN: I'm so overwhelmed by the positive response to this story, this is my first shot at writing anything really so thank you to all who have followed, favourited, and reviewed already, I hope I can keep your interest! I've loved reading your comments so far and if you do have a minute to spare please drop me a couple of lines about what you think and know I'm always happy to answer questions!


	3. Chapter 3

Her phone rang exactly three hours and forty seven minutes after she arrived at work. She knew because she'd spent the whole time in her office looking over accounts and contracts and she had checked the clock every thirty seconds to see if it was any closer to lunch. Her stomach lurched when she glanced at the caller ID but she had to take it.

"Hi, Vivienne." Ana said softly. Vivienne always seemed to call right after Ana had the dreams about her. When they were little they used to tell people they could communicate telepathically. Maybe there had been some truth in that.

"Ana, I didn't know if you'd answer!" Vivienne sounded as though she was in a good mood. _That makes one of us_ Ana thought almost bitterly. She didn't know why Vivienne was surprised that she answered, she always did because if she didn't one of two things happened: one, Vivienne would not call again for months and Ana would worry about her even more than usual or two, Vivienne would call consistently for the rest of the day and scream at Ana for worrying her when she eventually bit the bullet and picked up the call. "Are you at work."

"On my break." Ana lied. She didn't have breaks, work was too busy at the moment. Her gallery was struggling financially, not that she was willing to admit that to anyone but herself. She was stressed just thinking about it. Perhaps it would be a good time to take up smoking, apparently that was supposed to help with stress…

"Good! Guess where I am?" Ana didn't like the 'guess where I am' game that Vivienne enjoyed playing because the worry was always that she would say 'Seattle!' and Ana would have to pretend she was glad she was home. She was a better actress over the phone than she was in person.

"Australia?" Ana suggested, plucking a random destination far away out of thin air for her guess.

"Japan!" Ana felt a wash of relief over her and then felt guilty for it. "How's Christian?" Ana bit down hard enough on her lip to draw blood. _Christian's just fine, enjoying being a single parent to the daughter you pretend doesn't exist as well as working to provide for her while you gallivant around the world using his money that you earned in the divorce settlement._

"He's okay." Ana thought about mentioning that they had dinner together the night before and then decided that it wasn't information Christian would want Vivienne to know. When she had started calling Ana like this, about two months after she'd left, Ana had asked Christian about what she should say – 'just find out where she is, make sure she's okay, tell her I'm fine, please don't give her details'. Details might peak her interest and the last thing Christian would want was her calling him. He had tried hard to move on from her and done spectacularly well, Ana couldn't stand the thought of her getting in touch and setting him back again. He was over her, but that didn't mean he wasn't still angry about her leaving in the first place.

"And you?" Vivienne never asked about Evie.

"I'm great!" Also a lie. She wondered if Vivienne could hear it in her voice. "I'm seeing Kate for lunch later. I'll tell her you got in touch." That wasn't a lie. She'd definitely vent about it to Kate while they were out together. It was the one thing she could talk to Kate about better than Christian – aside from telling him that she called which he had asked her to always do he wouldn't want to know details, which was completely fair. Kate, however, who had known Vivienne almost as long as Ana had, would not mind anything Ana told her about the conversation.

"Oh, Kate! I miss her so much." Vivienne sounded like she was about to break down in tears, an all too likely scenario. Despite being annoyed that it was Kate she got teary about missing and not her daughter, Ana knew she had to talk her down, softly and calmly.

"She misses you too." Ana reassured her. Vivienne liked to know that she was being thought of in what she called her 'extended absence'. Ana didn't like that term because it implied that at some point in the future she would no longer be absent. The next step was to distract her. "I was listening to Jesus Take the Wheel on my way home last night, Viv. Remember when we took that roadtrip to see your mom and that was the only song we listened to the whole way there?" Ana heard Vivienne laugh and felt some relief wash over her. She still felt a duty of care to her even now, that was the worst part of all this. No, that was selfish, the worst part was Evie being abandoned by her mother, the Christian being abandoned by his wife, then any issue she had.

"She banned us from singing it in the house." Vivienne recalled almost fondly. "I miss her." Ana fidgeted and picked a thread from her dress. Talking about her dead mother seemed like a tunnel towards a breakdown.

"Me too, Viv." _I miss you too, but I don't want you to come back._

Ana heard voices over the other end of the phone and she knew Vivienne was covering the receiver to converse with whoever had come over. Probably the latest straggler she had picked up at a hotel bar whose name she wouldn't remember in the morning. Although… What time was it in Japan? She googled it quickly while Vivienne was still distracted. Five am. That didn't seem that far away until Ana realised it was technically five am the next day. That seemed far enough away from her that she didn't have to worry. Again she felt selfish for hoping that Vivienne stayed away.

"Sorry Ana, I have to go." Vivienne said, providing no explanation of why. Ana didn't mind, she was used to it.

"Take care of yourself." Vivienne cut off the call before Ana could say any more and running her hands through her hair Ana had dialled Christian's number immediately.

"I can't have lunch with you." Christian said the second he answered and despite the conversation she'd been having moments earlier she actually smiled. He sounded strained and she felt guilty for adding to his stress. The idea of hiding a conversation that she had with Vivienne was worse though, that would betray his trust completely. Ana couldn't do that to him.

"Christian, I'm not asking you to lunch." Ana's voice was soft and Christian understood why immediately and sighed loudly.

"Where is she?" He was as worried that she would come home as Ana was. 'God, what if she tries to take Evie?' he had asked her once. Ana had spent the next hour assuring him that no court in their right mind would grant custody to anyone other than him, he was constantly with his daughter and he hadn't run off. Besides, one of the conditions in their divorce settlement had been that she give up any custodial rights to her daughter in exchange for a very large sum of money and he had ensured that contract was loophole free.

"Japan."

"You don't have to take her calls, Ana. It's not fair to put all that on yourself, I know how hard this is on you." She had to smile, it was sweet that he was always so concerned about her. The pair of them worried about each other constantly.

"She's like my sister. I don't want to get involved but…" _But if I don't then she might put it on you. You got left with her child; she's done enough to you already._

"I know. Do you want to come over tonight?" He always felt guilted into inviting her over after she had dealt with a call from Vivienne. He was such a good person. He didn't deserve to have had Vivienne fly through his life and leave it as wrecked as a hurricane would have. He deserved someone who would never make him cry, who would never leave him desperate and alone. Ana wished she was with him because she had the overwhelming urge to give him a hug.

"I can't, dinner with Michael. I think he's going to propose." Christian fell silent on the other end of the line, likely trying to hide his disappointment. "I'm going to say no. And then I think I have to end things for good." Christian made an interested sounding noise, likely now trying to mask his glee. Michael was, in his words 'the nicest guy you've ever dated' but 'I still hate him, Ana'. "I miss living alone." Christian laughed loudly at this, and she could picture him shaking his head.

"Come and have a drink after you're done. You can stay the night while he clears his stuff out, if you like."

"Thanks, that would actually be really good." She hadn't considered that after she ended things with him she would have to go home to the apartment they shared and spend an awkward night in the same place as him because it would be far too late for him to actually move back into his own place – thank God he hadn't sold that though otherwise she'd be stuck with him for months while he tried to find somewhere else and she couldn't force Christian to put up with her for that long.

"Good luck, Ana."

"Have a good day, if you can. I'll text when I'm on my way over." They both hung up the phone at the same time and Ana looked at the clock again – time to leave for lunch with Kate. It had made time go quicker but she would far rather have been looking over her hopeless accounts than talking to Vivienne.


	4. Chapter 4

"A toast, to your imminent single status." Kate announced, holding up a wine glass which she had mostly drained already. Ana giggled but obligingly raised her glass – which contained water since she had to drive back to work and wanted to be lucid for that evening – and clinked it with hers. "I'm so glad I don't have to be the only single one anymore!"

"We're not broken up yet, Kate." Ana reminded her. Kate waved her hand nonchalantly.

"Details, details." Kate was even less lucky with relationship than Ana was, but that was mostly because she preferred one night stands and rarely bothered with dates. When she did, Ana had to clear her schedule for the evening as well as she would receive a series of poorly spelt messages about what a mistake it was for Kate to have agreed to it and how much she was having to drink to get through it and this was usually followed by a late night visit where she would complain about it some more and then demand to stay on the couch. She had stopped the last part after Michael moved in with Ana because she hated him almost as much as Christian did. Ana was quite pleased she would be able to pick up the old routine again, it only served to make her happier about her decision to end thing with him.

"Stop sounding so pleased." Ana scolded her with a smile on her face indicating that she didn't really mind at all.

"I can't help it! Finally, we can go to bars again and I can come to your house without wanting to tear all my hair out!" Ana laughed and stole one of the fries from Kate's plate, earning herself a glare from her friend. She didn't care. Kate was annoyingly happy about the end of her relationship; she owed her a few fries at the very least.

"At least Christian pretended to be sympathetic." Ana sighed.

"Yes but we're pleased for vastly different reasons, I am pleased because I am very selfish and I don't like being the only single one, he is pleased because he's had a crush on you for at least the last year and now he has a shot again." Kate said sounding very pleased with herself. Ana coughed on the sip of water she was taking and shook her head quickly.

"No he doesn't, I'm his friend and the godmother of his daughter and that is it." Ana could feel her cheeks flaming. Kate always embarrassed her by saying things like that. "I really don't know where you've got that idea from, it's completely delusional."

"Sure Ana…"

"Stop with the annoyingly dubious tone and finish your food before I do." Kate laughed and ate six fries at a time as though to make a point. "Pig. Okay, you wanna hear about Vivienne now?" Ana had given Kate the choice of topics when they met up, she could either hear about Michael or Vivienne first. Kate had gone with Michael because she wanted to 'start gently and work my way up to Vivienne'.

"My favourite topic." Kate said with a scowl as she took a big gulp of wine.

"She's in Japan, I looked it up, it was five am where she was when she called. She misses you apparently; I promised I'd tell you." Kate scoffed and pursed her lips. Ana half-smiled at the expression she was wearing. "My thoughts exactly."

"That's not the girl we grew up with." Kate said, shaking her head. "I mean she was always… You know, she was restless but she wasn't selfish. And she was so eager to get married and have kids, remember she used to make us conduct fake weddings for her and whichever boy in the class she'd taken a fancy to that week.

"You can't entirely blame her for leaving; she wasn't in her right mind."

"Plenty of women get depressed after they have a child, she's the only one I know who up and left because of it-" Kate shook her head when Ana went to speak again. "Okay, her mom died too, I get that but you cannot say she was right to blame her child for it." Ana bit down on her lip and sighed. She knew Kate was right about that, she just felt as though she had to keep making excuses for Vivienne, continue trying to justify her completely irrational behaviour in her mind so she wouldn't hate her as much as she wanted to. "And even if all that was enough to make her leave, it wasn't enough to make her stay away. If she had loved Christian or her daughter she would have come back when she was better but instead she sent him divorce papers and decided to travel the world."

"I know."

"So stop taking her calls, Ana." Kate said gently. Ana looked up at her and shook her head slowly. No, that wasn't something she was able to do yet. The guilt would overwhelm her.

Ana's afternoon at work was busy and stressful which and it was actually the perfect distraction from what had been quite a heavy discussion at lunch. So much for a light, jovial chat to distract Kate from her writers block. She was meeting Michael for dinner immediately after work and her stomach hurt when she thought of the confrontation she was about to engage in. Would it be cowardly to just call him, say she wanted to break up and hang up the phone? Yes, it would be, but Ana was still tempted. In the end she forced herself into her car.

 _Two hours and then you can go and see Christian and this will all be over and your apartment will be quiet and nice again._

Ana broke the news to Michael much sooner than she intended to when she noticed him turning a small object in his jacket pocket and she panicked that he was about to ask her to marry him. He looked shocked which she supposed was fair, she had given very little indication that she was about to do this, although perhaps he should have been more perceptive. She went out of her way to avoid him most days and they shared no interests or friends, this was never going to work out long term. She couldn't marry him.

"I should have known this was coming." Michael said with a bitter laugh. At least he wasn't making a scene in public which she had been paranoid about all afternoon. "I mean you barely spend any time with me, too busy playing house with your friend and his kid." Ana gritted her teeth but forced herself not to say anything, engaging would only serve to anger him further and hopefully she could just let him rant for ten minutes and then make a run for it. "You seem to forget that she's not your child and he's not your husband and when he finds some woman to replace his wife you're going to end up on your own wondering why you wasted so much time on them."

"Get your things out of my apartment by tomorrow morning." Ana told him sharply. Ana didn't say another word; she just stood up quickly from the table, threw him an angry look and marched out of the building. She didn't have to put up with that.

 _AS 21.16: On my way over._

 _CG 21.17: That was quick._

 _AS 21.19: Like ripping off a bandaid._


	5. Chapter 5

Ana treated her car like a safe haven – if she was in there alone with the doors locked nothing bad would happen to her. Multiple times she had been told this was illogical – cars crashed, windows could be smashed in, she might accidentally leave the engine on and inhale carbon monoxide vapours and die (Kate was responsible for the introduction of that last one into her head a year ago and she had been worried about it ever since). Still, in there she could compose herself before going anywhere, before she went home and had to see the man she was so glad was about to be purged for her life, before she went into work and had to remember that her childhood dream was a complete failure and she was going to have to bite the bullet and sell it off soon so she didn't go bankrupt, even when she went to visit her mother so that she was prepared for the questions she always fired at her ('how's the business?' 'still think art was a good college major?' 'when are you getting engaged?').

She had never needed to talk herself up like that before she went to visit Christian. It was probably the only time she parked and got straight out of the car without needing some kind of pep talk and motivational music.

For once Christian opened his door to her before she could use her key, he'd probably glanced at the security cameras and seen her driving in. He handed her a glass of wine before he said hello and he ushered her inside, sweeping her up in a wave of niceties under the guise of consolations that she had ended her relationship when she knew that really they were congratulatory.

"I said to Kate earlier 'at least Christian's being sympathetic about this break up' but now I see you're clearly as pleased as she is." Ana said to him as she sat down on the couch.

"Pleased? Not at all, just relieved that you have made a decision that you're comfortable with and that will make you happy." Christian said. He didn't falter but Ana knew it was total rubbish, she could see the glee behind his eyes as he spoke. She wasn't annoyed with him about it at all, in the end, as he always was, he'd been right, she wasn't great with Michael. Just because he lasted a little longer than the others didn't mean he was any more suited to her.

"Back to square one then, I guess. Kate's eager to take me man hunting but I don't know… I'm happy just being by myself for a while." She tried to ignore the ringing in her ears as she remembered what Michael had said to her about ending up alone. He was angry, he was just saying whatever he could to get a rise out of her, and she was determined to ignore it.

"I think that's a good idea." Christian agreed, nodding in approval. He would never tell her what to do in her romantic life but he always had an opinion. When she ignored what he thought like she had with Michael it usually ended up just as he'd predicted anyway. "Does that mean you're going to be spending all your free time with Evie and me?"

"No, no, don't worry, I promise not to bother you too much." Ana assured him, to which he quickly shook his head.

"Ana, I didn't mean that to sound as though I would mind, both of us love having you around and for the last few months we haven't seen you nearly as much as we like to, I was quite hoping you'd be around a little more often now." Ana smiled as he spoke, touched that he was so eager to have her around more frequently again. It wasn't like she rarely visited now but it was less often than she used to. It was nice to know that Christian didn't think she was imposing on them, not that he had ever said anything to indicate that he did.

"Well that's good. I think I will try to be here more, I see Evie for such a short time when I am here, compared to when I lived here it's nothing." For the first year Vivienne had been gone Ana had unofficially moved in, seeing how overwhelmed Christian was by being thrown into single fatherhood having barely even found his footing as a parent in the first place. The guest room was still filled with her belongings. If things got any worse at the gallery she might have to ask if she could move in again, though hopefully she would be able to sort things out before her apartment became at risk. The thought of asking him to let her stay there was mortifying, worse because she knew he would say yes and try to insist she take money from him. Ana was determined to work through it on her own; she had never been the type to take handouts. She hadn't mentioned the trouble she was in to him yet, she kept chickening out, and she felt bad about it. This was the first secret she had ever kept from him and she knew as the days went on that he would be more and more hurt that she had refrained from telling him but she hadn't said it out loud to anyone yet and she wasn't ready to.

"Spend some weekends with us. I know you work sometimes but stop worrying about bothering me, she'd love if you came to the park with us or came over to watch some kids movie – we could watch one of your classics after she went to bed because I know how much you hate children's films."

"That sounds nice. I'll suffer through boring films for her." Occasionally Ana found a film that she enjoyed; a few months ago she had watched Mulan with them and sung all the songs for the next week even though she only knew five words in each one and annoyed herself whenever she launched into one without thinking.

"Thank you for your sacrifice." Christian said with a small smile, and Ana laughed lightly.

"I suppose if I ever settle down and have one of my own that I'll have to grin and bear that horror a lot more often." A look passed over Christian's face that she couldn't read at all.

"Is that something you want?" he asked her curiously. She sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know. I think so. I've had a lot of practice with Evie anyway so I know I'd be good at it. But that might be premature thinking considering I just ended the longest relationship I've ever been in and I don't want to rush into anything else. And I couldn't do it on my own."

"If you ever were in that position though you know I'd help you." he told her firmly and she smiled. Of course he would, she didn't doubt that for a second. It was good to know that she had him there if she needed him; after Vivienne left Christian assumed that Ana's loyalty would lie with her, not quite grasping how much she had grown to like him over the years and how protective she was over their daughter even when Vivienne rejected her. They had sat on the very same couch they were now for hours the first night after she'd gone, first with Ana cradling Evie, then with her arms around him instead after she'd put the baby to bed. She had never seen him cry before or after that night but they both shed enough tears for a lifetime then. It felt like so much longer ago than it actually was.

"I know you would, but for now you and Evie are all the family I need." Her face paled as she spoke, remembering Michael's words again: _You seem to forget that she's not your child and he's not your husband._

"Ana, are you alright?" Christian asked her, noticing the swift change in her demeanour. She nodded quickly even though there was a pounding in her head that she couldn't get rid of. _When he finds some woman to replace his wife you're going to end up on your own wondering why you wasted so much time on them._ But he would never just toss her aside like that because it became inconvenient to have her there, surely? Not even when, inevitably, some new woman came into the picture. But if she hated Ana then he might be persuaded.

"I'm fine." Ana managed to say even though she felt like she was about to do something ridiculous like burst into tears without any real provocation. "I just got dizzy for a second, I'm fine." She realised too late that saying she was fine again was the quickest way to make him worry about her.

"Let me get you some water?" Christian offered, looking genuinely concerned. Ana forced herself to smile and nodded and he squeezed her shoulder as he got up and went in the direction of the kitchen. Ana closed her eyes and tried to push all the negative thoughts from the forefront of her mind. It wasn't helping her much.

"Ana?" She opened her eyes and saw Evie standing in front of her, rubbing her eyes with one hand and dragging her toy elephant by the trunk in the other. "Daddy said you were coming over but I couldn't see you until morning."

"You should be asleep honey, it's much too late for you to be up." She hoped that she and Christian hadn't woken her up. Evie grinned and held her arms out for Ana to pick her up which Ana did immediately. It was like instinct now. "Your Daddy isn't going to be pleased that you're out of bed." She warned her softly. Evie nuzzled her head against Ana's neck which Ana took as a sign that she didn't mind very much. Evie was usually well behaved but she had Christian and Ana wrapped around her little finger when she wasn't. "Let me tuck you back into bed, okay?" Evie nodded and Ana stood up and carried the little girl on her hip back into her room.

"Promise you'll be here tomorrow?" Evie asked her as she tucked her in, wide eyes the exact same shade of grey as her father had. It was impossible to be angry with a child who had eyes that wide and pretty.

"I promise, sweetheart, now go to sleep." She kissed Evie on the forehead before she left her room and almost screamed when she ran into Christian the second she turned to go back and explain her absence to him.

"She threw a very rare temper tantrum tonight when I accidentally mentioned that you were coming over but it would be too late for her to see you. Took me nearly an hour to get her ready for bed and you know how good she usually is. You must have magical powers." Christian informed her, peeking in through the half open door to make sure his daughter was still tucked into bed.

"I should start charging for my services."

"You're certainly a lot more useful than her nanny is. I think I'm going to have to get a new one, she's always ill or cancelling last minute, it's beginning to get very frustrating. I need someone more reliable, I can't keep taking her into the office, she hates it and it's hardly professional."

"If she flakes on you again just call me, Evie can sit in the gallery with me, I'll set her up with paint and paper, all my artists will love her and the clients will probably buy more if they think I have a daughter to support." Christian laughed; Ana would never actually use Evie like that, it wouldn't be fair, but if people made certain assumptions while the girl was there and she was helping Christian out too then nobody could say she was doing anything wrong. _God, when did I become this person?_

"That would be helpful." Christian admitted. Ana rarely looked after Evie on her own because he didn't like to put her out like that, never understanding that Ana adored Evie far too much to mind.

They stayed up and chatted for a little while longer. Ana tried to conceal how tired she was, not wanting him to think she was being rude or that she was bored by him which she certainly wasn't. Eventually he said they should probably head to bed which she instantly agreed with.

* * *

 _Ana dreamed of Vivienne again that night._

 _"Ana, can you come out here for a second?" Ana looked over at Vivienne who was sleeping on the sofa and then down to the baby she was holding in her arms. She was only two weeks old and Ana already adored her even more than she had known she would. Vivienne on the other hand had held her a maximum of once a day and refused to breastfeed her, which wasn't a bad decision by any means, it just wasn't what she had wanted at the beginning of her pregnancy, she'd trawled the mommy blogs and by her second trimester had been able to rattle off a list of ninety reasons she wouldn't bottle feed her child. Ana had noticed her change in her final month but she had put it down to pre-birth nerves. Now she was less sure. She carried the baby out and faced Christian in the hallway. He looked pale._

 _"Are you alright?" she asked immediately, knowing it was a superfluous question, he very clearly wasn't alright. He shook his head, confirming what she knew._

 _"It's Lucille." It took her a moment to place who he meant, mostly because she had always called Vivienne's mother 'Lucy' liked she preferred. Christian was overly formal and avoided all nicknames, he'd known her nearly four years and he'd only just stopped calling her 'Anastasia'. "She was in an accident on her way here." Lucy had been detained in Arizona for a little while before she could come up, and never a fan of planes she had decided to drive. She was supposed to be arriving the next day if all went well._

 _"Oh my God, I'll wake Vivienne up. Is she conscious?" Ana asked him quickly. Vivienne was so overwhelmed by the baby already that this was the last thing she needed. Ana prayed that Lucy only had a few cuts and bruises and she could come straight here and give her daughter something to smile about._

 _"It was raining, this forty tonne truck went into the back of her, the paramedic I just spoke to said she died within seconds." Ana looked down at Evie in her arms suddenly very sad that she wouldn't ever meet her grandmother. Lucy was a wonderful person. Ana then went very cold thinking about how they were supposed to break this to a woman who was already barely holding herself together. She wanted to cry even though it wasn't her that any of this was happening to. She cradled Evie just a little bit closer._

 _Suddenly Evie was wailing loudly in a way she had very rarely done as a baby and they were back in the living room. Vivienne was awake and on her feet and screaming._

 _"Get her out of my house!" Vivienne sobbed and Ana froze as she thought she was referring to her before she realised Vivienne was pointing at the baby she was still holding._

 _"You cannot blame out daughter for this!" Christian yelled back at her. He had been so good with her after Evie was born, this was the one time he had lost his temper. Ana rocked the baby gently, trying to soothe her a little. "She is two weeks old, this is nobody's fault."_

 _"She wouldn't have been coming here if it wasn't for her." Ana looked at Vivienne, she had a look about her that suggested she was about to do something rash and stupid and making eye contact with Christian, Ana dived out of the room, quickly putting the baby in her pram and leaving the apartment. She felt a duty to remove her from that. She loved Vivienne dearly but in this state of mind, blaming her child for her mother's death, she didn't trust her at all._

* * *

AN: I know the last one was short so this is a bit longer, I think it was about time we saw a little more of Ana and Christian face to face. Thank you again to all my followers, favourite-ers, and reviewers, I'm so glad you're all enjoying the story! As usual I'd love you to write me a quick line and let me know what you think, feel free to send me questions, I will answer to the best of my abilities (without giving the whole plot away of course!)


	6. Chapter 6

_It was bitterly cold, mid-February and Ana was just delighted that it wasn't raining for once. Evie was bundled into her pram with as many blankets as Ana had been able to grab but she was still worried that the baby, now fast asleep, would get too cold. She couldn't hail a cab with a pram this size and her car was abandoned in the garage under Christian and Vivienne's apartment and she wasn't taking Evie back there. It wasn't too far to her own apartment; the one she had owned back then had been closer and smaller. She tried to walk the twelve blocks as quickly as she could, darting into a grocery store when the thought crossed her mind that she should probably get some baby formula and diapers. Hopefully Christian would call her when it was okay to come back and Vivienne had calmed down a little but if Evie needed to stay the night then she wanted to be prepared._

 _Only once they were in her apartment did she begin to feel like she could breathe. Evie began to wake up, crying softly and Ana scooped her out of the pram and took her over to the sofa._

 _"Shh, shh, sweetheart, it's okay. I know you probably want your Daddy but I'll have to do for now." Ana said to her quietly as she rocked her. Holding her was a nice sensation; it made her feel a lot calmer and less worried about Vivienne. Evie's crying softened quickly and Ana beamed at her. "There you go, see, I'm not so bad." Mentally she tried to calculate when the child had last been fed and decided she would try a bottle anyway. Ana quickly became an expert at balancing the child on her hip while she mixed the formula and heated it up a little._

 _Feeding Evie was even more cathartic than holding her was; she was so tiny and her eyes became adorably wide when she drank from the bottle and her nose scrunched up a little, as though she was concentrating very hard on it._

 _Ana put Evie to sleep in the pram that night; it was comfortable enough and there was nowhere else safe enough for her to go. She stayed on the couch, wanting to call Christian and make sure he was alright and let him know that Evie was fine but she didn't. If Vivienne was still screaming then a call was a bad idea, and hopefully he trusted her enough to know that his daughter was safe with her. Probably safer than she would have been around Vivienne._

 _She found Misery on one of the horror channels and settled into her sofa to watch it but the parallels of a man being lured into a false sense of security and then seeing how unstable a woman was made her feel intensely uncomfortable. She switched it off and sat in silence instead._

* * *

Ana awoke feeling a little better than she had the evening before. The memory of the first time she had looked after Evie on her own was not a bad one by any means, it was just tainted by the echo of Vivienne in the background.

It was around five thirty but Ana felt oddly awake and for some reason even though she had been dreaming the same way she usually did, about Vivienne and Evie, her mind was not fixated on her gallery again. She couldn't get back to sleep with her mind set so firmly on such a dismal topic and her eyes welling up with tears in a way she wished they wouldn't so she decided to creep into the kitchen to get herself some tea. She could sit in bed and read for a few hours and try to divert her mind a little. Once again she found herself grateful that Christian always remembered to keep stocked up on her favourite tea. She was pouring her tea out when she heard footsteps, luckily too heavy to be Evie's.

"It's a little early for you?" Christian commented the second he saw her standing in there. His hair was damp so Ana deduced he must have been up long enough to take a shower already.

"I woke up and I couldn't get back to sleep." Ana skirted around the details and traced the handle of her mug with her index finger. And then, before she could think the better of it, persuaded by tiredness and a desperate need for support she said: "I think I'm going to have to sell the gallery." Ana felt bad for throwing such a conversation at him so early in the morning but she needed to get it out. Christian looked at her as though to silently ask for further details. "It's hardly been a lucrative business for the last couple of years but you know, I managed. About three months ago it just plummeted. I'm keeping it afloat but barely."

"I knew something was wrong with you, I've been convincing myself I was imagining it." Christian ran his fingers back through his hair. "How much do you need, Ana?"

"That's not why I told you…" she stuttered, blushing furiously.

"I'm well aware of that, but you can't have expected me to just sit back and do nothing." Ana didn't respond to this. She didn't want to say that knowing he would offer her a financial lifeline was exactly the reason she hadn't told him before. She bit her lip nervously and tried not to let her facial expression change. "Tell me how much you need and I'll write you a cheque now and we don't have to talk about it again." He sounded almost pleading, ironic when she was the one who needed help.

"I don't… I can't… Christian, please don't put me in a position where I have to refuse money from you." she pleaded with him, even though it was futile. The offer was there and he wasn't the kind to just retract it.

"You don't have to refuse, Ana." Christian pointed out and she threw him an exasperated look. He smiled at her softly. "Let me help you."

"It's going to be too much money. I don't know how much I'd need exactly but however much it is won't be small and I am not taking something from you which I will likely never be able to pay back." Ana told him firmly.

"Ana, however much it is will never be enough to pay you back for what you've done for me and Evie over the years. I mean, fuck, you moved in here less than a week after Vivienne left, you gave up your social life, your painting, you broke up with your boyfriend – although I maintain that was a blessing in disguise." Ana couldn't help the small smile that passed over her lips. "I am never going to be able to repay you for any of what you've done, I could give you everything I owned, every cent I had and it would never be enough. This would be the smallest possible dent in what I owe you. You helped me out when I needed it, now please, let me help you."

"Well you're nothing if not a compelling orator." Ana said as Christian smirked. "You should run for congress." He looked at her as if to warn her about trying to change the subject. "Give me a few days to think it over at least, I can't just take this from you on a whim. Let me balance the pros and cons." Pro: gallery saved. Con: using Christian like a bank just like Vivienne did when they were married. Ana rubbed her temples, thinking again that it was far too early for a discussion like this one and wondered perhaps if just keeping quiet would have been a better option.

"I'm not going to stop offering if you say no." he warned her gently.

"You're incredibly stubborn but I know you're just trying to help. Thank you for the offer. Even if I don't take it-" She held her hand up to him when she saw that he was about to argue with her. "Even if I don't take it, you're a good friend for offering." She put her arms around him and hugged him tightly for a few moments, surprised at the rare feeling of him hugging her back.

"We have to help each other out, Ana." Christian said to her softly as she let him go. "We're family." Ana smiled at him, feeling very warm inside at the reassurance. He was her family Michael was wrong, which shouldn't have been such a surprise. She was surer than ever that she would not just be cast aside if and when Christian found somebody new.

So why did the thought still make her feel slightly queasy?

Ana didn't have time to think about it as she heard quiet footsteps coming towards the kitchen and Evie pushed the door open tentatively.

"Can I see Ana now?" Evie asked her father from the doorway and he smiled and nodded encouragingly which was all the indication Evie needed to run over to Ana, who obligingly bent down to catch her and lifted her up into her arms. Evie placed a kiss on her cheek before she rested her head on Ana's shoulder, stroking her hair with one hand. Ana assumed Evie had learnt it from her because she was always either playing with her own hair or Evie's.

"Say good morning to your Daddy." Ana reminded her gently. Evie looked surprised that she had forgotten.

"Sorry Daddy! Good morning!" she said apologetically but brightly, and Ana angled her so that she could give him a kiss on his cheek. Christian tickled her under her chin, making her giggle before she snuggled back into Ana.

"It's okay. I know I'm not nearly as exciting as Ana is." he assured her.

"You're always here Daddy." Evie reminded him. "And Ana is never here."

"We were just talking about that last night." Ana told her. "And your Daddy suggested I spend some more time over here because I miss you so much." Evie looked delighted at the prospect, breaking out into a wide grin. "And I was thinking since today is a weekend I might as well spend the day with both of you, if you're both agreeable." Ana knew Evie would be, she just didn't want to impose on Christian after already having spent the night. Evie looked at her father, wide eyed and hopeful.

"It's up to Evie." Christian said, smiling, knowing of course that his daughter wouldn't reject the idea of spending the day with Ana.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Evie assured her immediately. "Can we have pancakes first though?" Evie noticed that her father looked like he was about to reject the idea and immediately tried a different approach. "They're Ana's favourite." The pair looked at each other and laughed.

"Don't use me to guilt your father into doing things!" Ana scolded her, but she smiled so Evie knew immediately that she wasn't serious. "But yeah, I would love pancakes if they're being made."

"See Daddy? It would make us both so happy!" Evie told him with big eyes. It was almost comical how she knew exactly how to get Christian to do what she wanted at such a young age. She was only going to get better at it. She would probably be able to do much the same with Ana if she ever tried, those eyes of hers could melt her in an instant.

"I suppose I'm making pancakes then." Christian said, recognising that he was outnumbered and defeated completely anyway. "Just this once though Evie."

Ana took her through to the front room and sat on the floor with her, watching Evie as she gently brushed the hair of one of her dolls. Evie absolutely adored dressing them up and brushing their hair and she owned more of them than one child could ever need, though that was a result of Christian's mother Grace, another person who couldn't say no to the little girl. Every time Evie stayed with them even for an hour or so she came back proudly with a new toy, usually a doll of some kind. 'She's my only grandchild, Christian, I can't say no to her'. Ana suspected, having met Grace and seen what a generous person she was that even if Christian had triplets she would be much the same, spoiling them rotten.

"You're going to have to teach me to guilt your Daddy into making me whatever food I want." Ana told her. Evie giggled.

"It's easy."

Christian called them through not much later and Evie ate with a smug grin on her face the whole time, identical to the one Christian wore whenever he won an argument or he was right about something. They sat mostly in silence enjoying their food but Evie patted Ana on the arm to get her attention midway through breakfast.

"Can we watch one of my films today? You haven't seen Frozen yet. One of them has the same name as you do."

"It's spelled differently, Evie." Christian told her. Ana looked at him, amused that he knew this. "I had to read the novelisation to her after Mia bought it for her last birthday. It was nearly exactly the same as the film." Evie grinned excitedly but Christian looked strained. If he hadn't enjoyed it there was no chance that Ana would, she hated kids films way more.

"Is that the one with the talking snowman?" Evie nodded happily. "You know I don't like talking animals."

"But you liked Mulan!" Evie protested.

"Dragons aren't animals."

"Neither are snowmen." Christian interjected unhelpfully, smirking, and apparently determined to put her through whatever hell watching it would be. "It's got lots of songs, you can have them stuck in your head for the next week." Ana shook her head immediately.

"I can't wait until you're old enough to watch good films with me. The second you turn ten we're going to spend the day watching Gone With the Wind and Some Like It Hot. Ooh we could watch Labyrinth, technically that's a kids film."

"No, I've watched that with you before and I think kids film is slightly generous given how tight certain aspects of David Bowie's attire are." Christian said, vetoing her idea immediately as Ana tried to laugh without spitting out the mouthful of pancake that she had taken at completely the wrong time. "I agree with Evie, it's about time we introduced you to the joys of Frozen." Ana looked at him pleadingly but he only ignored her and smiled at his daughter. It was no surprise she was that good at manipulating people already if that was the influence of her father. Still, Ana liked seeing how much the little girl took after him, it was very sweet most of the time.

"Yay!" Evie exclaimed.

"Is it too late for me to remember that I'm busy and not spend the day with you two?" Ana asked them with a small smile. Evie and Christian looked at each other.

"Yes." the pair said simultaneously.

* * *

AN: I though it was high time we saw a little more of Ana with both Christian and Evie so I hope this is enjoyable! Please continue to follow, favourite, and review!


	7. Chapter 7

"Ana I swear to god if you sing that song one more time I'm going to ban you from my house for a week." Christian warned her. They were making lunch and she had barely opened her mouth to sing the annoyingly catchy song from Frozen.

"I can't help it. I take back everything I said about that movie. It was beautiful." Christian looked at her horrified and Ana glared at him, trying to butter bread for the sandwiches without breaking eye contact. They had been planning to go to the park but in true Seattle style it had started raining midway through the morning and hadn't stopped yet. "I won't hear a bad word about it, Christian." He rolled his eyes and she glared again. "The truest love of all was between the sisters!"

"I watched the same movie as you, Ana, I am well aware of the plot."

"You don't appreciate it like I do." she grumbled as she cut the sandwiches into triangles and took the crusts off – the only way Evie would eat them. Christian scoffed audibly.

"You pretend to be such a lover of classic films and here you are raving about the merits of an animated children's film with a talking snowman. How the mighty have fallen." He was enjoying teasing her about this far too much so she picked a grape off a vine sitting in a bowl nearby and flicked it at him, impressed when her usually terrible aim actually succeeded for once and it bounced off the top of his head. "Very childish, Ana." He threw it back at her and she caught it in her mouth.

"You can't deny that was a good catch."

"That was quite impressive." he admitted and she grinned, putting the sandwiches onto a plate. She put a salad garnish on all three even though Evie would only eat the tomatoes and cucumbers from hers. Ana was impressed she even ate that, she was pretty sure she had refused to eat any vegetables at all at that age. "Shall we just eat next door?"

"Not eating at the table? You must be pleased to have me here. Or maybe you're ill?" She reached up to feel his forehead with the back of her hand. "Are you well?" He sighed and batted her hand away as she laughed. "Let's have a proper indoor picnic, blanket and all." Christian obligingly went into the cupboard and got the picnic blanket out even though he was muttering something about how Evie would never want to eat properly at the table again. She smiled at him sweetly and carried the plates through to the other room. Evie lit up when she saw the blanket and helped her father to push the coffee table out of the way – though Ana suspected Christian was doing the brunt of the work – and the little girl insisted on spreading the blanket on the floor because when both the adults tried they left creases in it that she wasn't happy with.

"Don't mess it up!" Evie exclaimed when they went to sat down and both of them sat obligingly very carefully, exchanging a look. "Thank you." Evie said once she was sure they were sitting neatly and Ana tried not to giggle when she sat down herself. "Ana after lunch we should watch Tangled because Rapunzel is my favourite princess and the lizard doesn't even talk I promise." Evie said quickly sounding quite breathless by the end of a long sentence, like she'd been waiting since Ana went into the kitchen so she could ask her this.

"Talk slowly so you can breathe while you're speaking." Ana advised her and Evie smiled sheepishly at her. "I think we've watched enough TV for today, too much will rot your brain." Evie looked horrified by this and Christian mouthed a grateful 'thank you' while he knew his daughter couldn't see. If she'd asked him he probably would have been persuaded to say yes and he was always worried that she would watch too much TV. "How about you pick something else for us to do? We could play with your dolls or do some drawing or read a book?" Evie chewed on her lip thoughtfully, definitely a habit she had picked up from Ana. She was quite touched that Evie picked these little habits up from her, she supposed it proved children picked things up from their environment as well as just genetics. Frequently she was glad that she saw none of Vivienne in the little girl.

"Can we bake a cake like we did before? Auntie Mia's coming to dinner and she could have it. I think she'd like that." Ana looked at Christian to silently ask whether she had permission to make a huge mess in his kitchen. He thought for a second before nodding.

"Sure, I think Auntie Mia will love that, you'll have to make sure to tell her it was your idea." Evie nodded enthusiastically.

"Daddy is Ana staying for dinner with us?" Evie asked him, wide eyes turned on Christian now, ready to guilt him into asking her if he said no. Ana was still slightly disbelieving that a three year old had managed to be so astute as to work out exactly how to get people to do what she liked.

"I was going to ask her if she wanted to but Ana might want to get back to her apartment."

"No, if you don't mind me staying I'd love to; it's been ages since I saw Mia. Michael texted this morning to say he was out of the apartment so I don't really need to deal with anything." She didn't mention that he'd also left voicemails and called so many times that she had turned her phone off so she wouldn't be tempted to pick up. He said everything he expected her to, how sorry he was for what he said, how he wanted her to call him so they could try and work things out. Ana had been irritated that he hadn't realised she didn't want to work things out. She was very flippant about the guys she dated, her opinion of them and their relationship could change in a second like it had with Michael but she never changed her mind about the men she broke up with. She knew she would never have doubts like that about the man she ended up with, if she ever did.

Christian went off to do a little work after lunch as soon as he was sure Evie was happy with just Ana. He didn't like working over the weekend but Ana knew if he didn't things piled up, and she was more than happy to keep Evie out of his way for a few hours. Ana was delighted, always happy to get one on one time with Evie and not be barred from listening to music Christian didn't like.

"I like this song!" Evie declared from where she was sat swinging her legs on the counter while Ana measured out ingredients, singing along word perfect to 'Ain't No Other Man'.

"I'll teach you the dance routine Kate and I made up in college to this song later if you like." Evie grinned at the suggestion. She liked learning dances from Ana, although Ana would have to think up a suitable alternative to the slut drop Kate had insisted on adding. Another twirl would be fine and slightly more appropriate for a young child.

"Yes please!" Evie agreed happily.

"Right, all done with the ingredients now." Ana said as she lifted Evie down onto the dining chair she had fetched for her so she would be able to reach the countertop.

While they were cooking they listened to Little Mix which was Evie's favourite band of the moment; it changed week to week. Ana cursed how easily she picked up songs because mentally she had the oddest mashup of Let It Go, Ain't No Other Man, and Salute spinning around in her head and it was driving her mad.

They ended up making two different things. Evie had been keen to make a coffee cake which she had cleverly remembered was a joint favourite of both Ana and Mia, but she also wanted butterfly cupcakes for herself, telling Ana that she didn't like coffee cake but she wanted to make something for them. Ana knew it was a ploy so they could bake more but she fell into the trap anyway. She reasoned that Mia would probably take as much cake home as she could sneak out of Christian's house so hopefully he wouldn't mind too much that Ana was making so much. If he did then Ana would employ Evie's services so he didn't mind for too long.

"You two look very domestic." Christian commented as he came in and saw them washing up their dishes. The kitchen was remarkably tidy considering the amount of baking they had done in there and Christian shot her a grateful look.

"We made coffee cake for Mia and Ana and cupcakes for me, Daddy, see?"

"I do, sweetheart, they look delicious. Was I not worthy of getting a special cake then?" Evie gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. That dramatic habit could be attributed to Mia without a doubt and it never failed to make Ana laugh. "No, sweetheart, don't worry. Although for the record my favourite is chocolate cake if I ever am worthy of getting my own." Evie looked like she was trying very hard to commit this fact to memory.

"Maybe on your birthday." Ana said with a wink.

"Probably not even then." Christian said in a pretend hurt tone. "I'm so unloved by my own family that I don't even get a cake."

"Well I-" Ana stopped abruptly. _Well I love you._ That was what she was about to say. She felt like her throat was closing up and she was slightly panicked about what she had almost said and she had no idea why because she had said it a million times to him and it wouldn't have been out of place.

She dropped the measuring bowl she was holding when she realised that she was so affected because she hadn't meant it like that this time.

 _He's not your husband._

For the first time she was overwhelmingly aware that she wished that wasn't true.

* * *

AN: A slightly shorter chapter than the last two, hopefully the content will make up for that. I thought it was time to push this forward a little more. Please follow, favourite, and review if you're enjoying this, I love reading your comments! As always I'm happy to take questions if you have them!


	8. Chapter 8

Ana felt herself being lead over to a chair and she was fairly sure someone was calling her name but it sounded like she was under water. She couldn't work out whether her reaction was over dramatic or warranted completely – she suspected the former. This was a complete overreaction to something she had just come up with randomly in her head – surely she was just being ridiculous? There was no way she could actually be in love with him. But then it made a worrying amount of sense – she hated the idea of him finding another woman, she went out of her way to spend time with him.

 _I'm in love with him._

 _He is my best friends husband!_

 _Ex-best friend. Ex-husband._

Suddenly she felt very claustrophobic. She just wanted to go home and call Kate and sob over the phone to her. She was sure that Kate would make her feel better, probably try to talk some sense into her. This was just a complete mental lapse and she would realise how ridiculous it was tomorrow.

 _Or I've felt like this for ages, am only just realising, and this isn't going away._

"Ana, look at me." Suddenly she was seeing and hearing things clearly again. Christian was knelt in from of her on the floor and she did her best to smile at him.

"I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me. I think it's just warm in here with the oven and I was feeling a little faint I suppose…" Ana tried to explain away, suddenly worried that he was annoyed with her. Her ears were still ringing a little. Her eyes darted around the room, Evie was gone, Christian had probably ushered her out. There was broken glass on the floor from where Ana had dropped a bowl. What a ridiculous reaction. She could have injured herself or far worse, Evie. "I'm so sorry Christian." She couldn't tell if she was apologising for spacing out, dropping the bowl, or the thoughts that were currently circling her head.

"Ana, it's okay, I'm just worried about you." he assured her, placing one hand gently on her arm. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Of course!" Ana knew her voice was a little too high-pitched to sound convincing. Luckily Mia chose that moment to burst into the apartment yelling for Christian, as though she had any other volume. Ana loved Mia at the best of times but right then she had never been more glad of her existence. Christian shot her a look that said they were going to continue this discussion later but helped her up without another word. She figured that the time between now and that conversation could be used in part to think up an explanation that wasn't 'sorry, I freaked out because I realised I might be in love with you, I hope that's okay'.

"I brought Mom!" Mia yelled down the hallway and sure enough she appeared with their mother Grace in the doorway of the front room a few moments later. "Ana!" Mia exclaimed when she saw her, barrelling towards her and flinging her arms around her.

"It's so lovely to see you Ana." Grace said to her, kissing her on the cheek once Mia had finally let go of her so she could pick Evie up and give her a tight hug.

"Does my entire family prefer you?" Christian asked her, amused rather than angry. Ana shrugged, smug grin firmly in place as Mia pulled a face and then nodded and Evie noticed and immediately copied her. Grace covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

"Of course not darling, but neither of us has seen Ana since – when was it? I think it might have been that summer barbeque that your father and I threw." Grace said and Ana nodded, she was pretty sure that was the last time. She remembered it well because she had brought Kate along and she was pretty sure she'd hooked up with Christian's brother because the pair of them had disappeared for over an hour on the pretence of buying more beer which was fairly suspicious being as they had returned with no beer and rumpled clothes. Ana remembered getting quite drunk and singing a wide variety of songs with Mia and Grace who had surprised everyone by rapping a word perfect Push It by Salt n' Pepa which her husband had thankfully managed to capture on video. The next day she had called a family meeting to ban any mention of it.

"Yes, I think it was." Ana agreed with her. Grace shook her head.

"Such a long time ago, every time he brings Evie to see us I say ask Ana to come with you and he always says he thinks you'll be too busy but I think he just wants to keep you to himself." Grace told her with a wink in her direction. Christian rolled his eyes and chose that moment to leave the discussion, muttering something about starting dinner and finding a more appreciative family in the near future.

"Ana and I baked! We made coffee cake for you Auntie Mia!" Evie piped up, not one to accept being ignored for long periods of time.

"My favourite!" Mia exclaimed and Evie smiled brightly.

"I know, it's Ana's too! And we watched Frozen and Ana knows all the words to Let It Go and I'm going to teach her all the others too!" Evie got breathless again at the end of her sentence she was talking so fast and the three adults laughed at her enthusiasm.

"Such a good film, isn't it?" Mia asked Ana with a small smile. "She made me watch it ages ago, I thought it was going to be terrible and then it turned out to be the best movie ever. I know Christian hates it but Elliot loved it, it made him cry and apologise for ignoring me when he was a kid. He watched it the week before my birthday – I've never known him to be so generous. Not that I'm complaining at all, of course, I got a really nice dress."

Mia handed Evie over to Grace and went to put some music on – 'remember there's a child present' Grace had warned her and she pouted but obligingly steered clear of anything that might be considered inappropriate. The adults chatted happily, letting Evie join in where she wanted although she was mostly happy to be passed between the three of them and listen to them talking. Ana would feel better for periods of time usually until Christian came out from the kitchen and started giving his input to the discussion. She kept looking at him and feeling the knot in her stomach getting tighter. She just needed some distance from him and then all these crazy thoughts would go away, she was sure. She was planning to escape quickly after dinner if she could.

Mia caught Ana's arm just as they were going through to the dining room to eat and while Grace was putting Evie to bed and for a second Ana was terrified that somehow Mia knew what she was thinking about Christian.

"Listen, I know it's not really your scene but Kate and I are going to a bar when I'm done here, you don't fancy slipping out with me after dinner and coming along? We were going to ask you anyway but we were worried you'd still be sad after your break-up." Apparently Kate was broadcasting that now which was unsurprising but slightly irritating all the same. She had a bad habit of forgetting that other people's private lives were not her business to gossip about. Still, it was a nice offer, and Ana quite fancied a night out with Mia and Kate to help distract her. Plus it would mean she could leave a little early without raising any eyebrows.

"I'd love to." Ana assured her with a smile and Mia squealed and threw her arms around her. She was going to bruise Ana's ribs if she kept on like that.

"I'll text Kate to pick us up from yours so you can take your car home." Ana smiled, that was a surprisingly thoughtful idea from Mia. She probably just wanted an excuse to poke around Ana's apartment.

Grace asked Ana how her gallery was doing over dinner and she could feel Christian's eyes burning into her skin the entire time she was talking about it. She didn't lie to Grace, she just avoided the details by telling her an amusing anecdote about a customer she'd had to deal with the week before and tried to ignore the look she knew was being thrown at her.

Mia explained their plans to Christian after dinner who looked dubious about the idea of Ana going to a bar but she grinned as though it was the most exciting prospect in the world. She felt guilty for diving out but she needed to be away from him, just for a little while. She needed to get her head straight, to work out whether this was just her inventing things dramatically or if these were actual feelings that she was going to have to deal with.

 _Please don't let me actually have to deal with this._

"Oh, I haven't said goodbye to your Mom!" Ana said at the door when she was about to get her coat. "Just give me a minute." Mia nodded and Ana rushed back in and headed to the kitchen where she knew Grace was helping Christian with the washing up. She could hear their voices inside and even though she knew she shouldn't, she stood at the door and listened for a minute.

"I say again, that girl would be a wonderful addition to the family." Grace sighed as she dried a plate, looking at Christian meaningfully. He shook his head at his mother. "You make life very difficult for yourself, you really do."

"I know you've always liked her-" Christian began.

"As have you." Grace cut in. Christian looked at her warningly but she only smiled. His mother would never be intimidated by him. Ana might have smiled at the exchange if it wasn't blindingly obvious that they were talking about her.

"Ana's only ever going to be a friend. I know everyone's very eager for that to change but I think you're all holding onto false hope." Grace's expression echoed the disappointment Ana felt and she decided that was enough torturing herself and hurried to the front door to meet Mia who grinned at her and handed her coat to her.

"Did you say goodbye to Mom?" Mia asked her. Ana nodded instead of lying out loud and Mia grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the door.

* * *

"Ana's only ever going to be a friend. I know everyone's very eager for that to change but I think you're all holding onto false hope."

"We're not the only ones eager for that to change, Christian." Grace knew her son very well, she'd seen him around Ana too many times to be completely oblivious to anything he might feel for Ana. They had this discussion every time Grace saw Ana and was reminded of how lovely it would be to actually have her in the family. She just needed to push her stubborn son into doing something about it before she was snatched up by someone else. "Last time we had this discussion she was with somebody else, now Mia tells me she is not."

"It's not as easy as that, I have Evie to think about." Grace tried very hard to let her face remain neutral even though this was the closest to a real admission of feelings that she had ever got out of him.

"Evie adores Ana."

"Exactly. If I did want a romantic relationship with her-" Grace didn't let herself smile even though she knew that this hypothetical was what her son actually wanted. "If she didn't feel similarly then she might take a step back and Evie would be devastated if she didn't see her anymore. I can't be responsible for that, her mother abandoned her, I don't want her to lose the closest thing she has to a mother too." Grace pursed her lips. She had never liked Vivienne from the moment Christian introduced her, remembering saying to Carrick that she would bring nothing but trouble. It wasn't entirely true, she had given him a beautiful daughter, but a lot of difficulties along with her.

"You really think if you approached Ana about something like this that she would just cast aside you and Evie? Surely you think a little more of her than that, Christian." Christian looked away from her and she knew that she was winning this discussion. He had learned his debating skills from her and he would never win in an argument against his mother. Her tone was a little softer when she spoke again. "At least think about it. It's clear to everybody apart from Ana how you feel about her."

"Okay, I'll think about it."

"You better not be lying to your mother, Christian." He smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek as thought to promise that he wasn't. "I think I'd best head home now." As Christian saw her out she thought to herself for the millionth time what a good man her son was and hoped for his sake that he could find someone to be happy with. And by someone, she meant Ana. No other woman was good enough for him, she was completely sure about that. No-one else had done for him what she had, they wouldn't have the same relationship with his daughter, and they wouldn't make him laugh as much.

Grace thought her family should just do exactly what she told them to, she would run their lives far better than they would.


	9. Chapter 9

All of Ana's clothes were on the floor within ten minutes of Mia entering her apartment and she might have been impressed by her tenacity if she hadn't been so annoyed about the mess she was making of her bedroom.

"Do you not own heels?" Mia asked her, knowing full well that the answer was no.

"Mia, I trip over nothing on average four times a day, I'm not increasing my risk of injury by adding heels into the equation." Mia turned around to scowl at her but went back to dividing Ana's clothes into two piles 'completely hideous' and 'somewhat acceptable' as Ana had been informed. She regretted asking what the piles were for. She didn't think her clothes were too bad, they were a little plain but she much preferred to dress like that. It didn't draw unwanted attention.

"It's going to be harder to get you a man if you're not in heels." Mia said as though this was a fact and not her own opinion. Ana rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to change her mind now about going out even though she was very tempted.

"I don't want to get a man. I've barely been single a day. You and Kate can do that, I just want to have a drink, a dance, and then come home." Mia looked horrified by this proposition.

"But I'm so close to winning the bet!" Mia exclaimed. Ana looked at her quizzically.

"What bet?" Ana asked her suspiciously. Mia sighed, probably not having meant to say anything about it aloud. Ana fixed her eyes on her as intimidatingly as she could before Mia sighed again and tossed a pale blue sundress onto the 'completely hideous' pile. Ana liked that dress.

"Kate and I might have been chatting yesterday." Mia couldn't hold Ana's gaze for any amount of time as she pretended to be studying a light green dress very closely even though there was no pattern and Ana already knew she would hate it and throw it on the bad pile. "And she said she thought my brother and you had a thing for each other and I said that I didn't think you did so she said 'let's see shall we' and so we have fifty dollars on it – she wins if he's the next guy you date, I win if it's anyone else." Mia finished, still looking away from Ana who was horrified that two of her supposed friends had decided this was a good idea and would have kept it from her if Mia wasn't such a blabber-mouth. She'd be having words with Kate at a later date.

"Mia!" Ana exclaimed irritably. "I can't believe you two would do that!" Mia waved her hand dismissively.

"What? It's just in good fun. It's fine to put bets on who you might date because that will make you happy, we draw the line at betting on when you'll break up with people." she assured Ana, as though this was supposed to reconcile her with the idea. Ana sighed heavily and flopped back onto her double bed, exhausted by the conversation.

"No more of this. Anyway, Kate's going to be sorely disappointed this time because he was saying to your Mom earlier when she was pushing the idea of us as a couple that we were only ever going to be friends." Ana wasn't as dismayed about this as she might have been, it wasn't like she had expected anything different, it just told her to keep her feelings to herself until they blew over.

And surely they would blow over?

Mia ended up selecting the one bright red dress that Ana owned – a gift from Kate who had bought it in a hurry thinking it had looked the right size only for it not to fit her when she tried it on which still had the label on it. To keep Mia happy she obliged and put it on, and she had to admit she looked good in it even if it was a little tighter, lower cut, and higher hemmed than the things she usually wore.

"Not happy about this bet, Kate." Ana said to Kate when she arrived. Kate laughed it off and gave Ana a hug and told her how lovely she looked in her dress and hurried them out of the apartment before Ana could say anything more about it.

They caught a cab, none of them really wanting to play designated driver and Ana agreed that unless they went home with somebody they could all just go straight back to her apartment since Mia lived out near her parents and Kate didn't have a guest room that anyone could stay in. They started on piña coladas (Kate's idea) and moved onto tequila shots about an hour after they arrived (Mia's idea). Ana was enjoying herself much more than she thought she would.

Kate decided she liked the look of the bartender and went to try to get him number. Mia diligently stayed with Ana, not wanting her to have to be by herself.

"Let's dance. I'm bored of just sitting here." Ana said when she noticed Mia looking wistfully at everyone who was up and dancing. She beamed at Ana and grabbed her hand to pull her over, and the pair were jumping about to tack pop music in no time at all. Ana made a note to go out with Mia more often, Kate was as great friend but going anywhere with her sucked because she always found some guy to latch onto like she had tonight – although she looked like she was having limited success with the bartender who seemed a lot more focussed on a redhead at the other end of the bar.

They ended up staying until around three – Kate joined the other two at midnight, giving up on her bartender but telling them 'I just thought you guys could use my company' instead of 'he wasn't interested in me'. Ana and Mia didn't push it. Ana, who had drunk less than the other two but was still pretty wasted, was tasked with calling the cab. She scrolled down her phonebook and hit what she thought was the right number.

"Ana, is everything alright?" Ana was confused when she heard Christian's voice. She must have pressed 'Christian' instead of 'Cab' on her phone, they were next to each other alphabetically.

"Oh, fine!" Ana exclaimed immediately, trying to sound like she had been drinking significantly less than she had. "Kate struck out with the bartender and Mia spent the whole evening with me, we're all fine." It only occurred to her once she had stopped speaking that he hadn't actually asked her how everyone else was, he was just wondering why she was calling. "I was trying to call a cab, but you're not a cab." She heard him laugh and knew that he could tell how much she'd been drinking.

"No, I'm not, that's very astute of you."

"I really should ring a proper cab." Ana told him, sad she had to put the phone down but realising that Mia was staring at her.

"You don't need me to come and get you, do you?" Christian asked before she could cut off the phone, sounding concerned. Ana was tempted to say yes because she thought she might quite like to see him but she knew he'd probably only been awake because his phone disturbed him and if he came for them he'd have to get Evie out of bed and into the car and that wouldn't be fair.

"No, no, go back to bed, Mia and Kate are with me, I'm fine."

"Okay. Ring me when you get home just to let me know you're alright." Ana heard him yawn on the other end of the phone.

"Bye!" She hung up by accident before he could say the same and she felt very emotional about it. Kate saw her looking sad and hurried over and wrapped her in a tight hug, instructing Mia to try ringing a cab because Ana was clearly useless. "Oh Kate, I think I'm in love with him." She sobbed on her shoulder and Kate patted her shoulder understandingly as she let Ana go.

"Who Ana?" Ana sighed deeply, as though Kate should automatically know.

"Christian, obviously!" she exclaimed exasperatedly. "I just realised this afternoon and it's horrible Kate, I have feelings for him and he doesn't for me and I want it to stop."

"Oh, Ana." Kate said, wrapping one arm around her shoulders as Ana sniffed, realising that she was being ridiculous but not caring. She'd only been holding this in for a few hours and it was already too hard for her to keep it to herself. "I never thought it was going to be that way round." Kate was slurring a little but Ana appreciated the effort on her part to have a conversation. "You never know, he might feel the same and then you wouldn't have to be sad and I'd win my bet."

"He told Grace I was only a friend." Ana sniffed.

"Maybe he just didn't want to admit it to his mother, or maybe he just hasn't realised, I mean you only realised this afternoon." Ana nodded, appreciating that Kate was trying to make her feel better even if she was probably mostly trying to convince herself that she hadn't lost her bet with Mia yet.

"Please don't tell Mia." Ana begged her, shaking her head at the thought. Kate was a gossip but she could keep big secrets. Mia could not, and Christian finding out from her would be mortifying.

"Did I hear my name?" Mia asked, bounding over while Kate mouthed Ana a silent promise that she wouldn't tell Mia what she had just disclosed to her. "Cab's on the way if you two are done whispering your secrets." Ana smiled at her warmly in the closest expression to innocence she could muster up, which she could tell even without looking in a mirror would be entirely unconvincing. Mia was either too drunk to notice or too drunk to care because for once she didn't mention it.

They were at Ana's apartment within half an hour, and Mia fell asleep on the sofa a minute and a half after they walked in.

"I'm going to be so hungover tomorrow!" Ana lamented as she made herself some tea and fetched a glass of water for Kate who was sitting at her breakfast bar taking selfies. Ana shook her head at how good her friend still looked even after having spent the entire night out. Ana herself looked nothing like the polished girl that had left her apartment.

"Me too. Fun night though. You should come out with us more often, I know you like the whole Mom thing you have going on but…" Kate trailed off when she saw Ana's expression had fallen. "You know I didn't mean anything…"

"No, I know. She's not my child, I don't have to act like a responsible parent." The buzz from the alcohol was wearing off and Ana just wanted to go to bed now. It was too late for a conversation of this magnitude, too late for her to explain to Kate for the millionth time that no, Evie wasn't hers but she wasn't going to let her down the way her mother had. "I want to go to bed now, Kate, I need some sleep so I can function like at least half a person tomorrow." Kate smiled at her softly as Ana gave her a hug, picked up her tea and headed to bed. Only when she was lying down did she remember that Christian had asked her to call.

"Hello Ana." Christian answered on the first ring.

"You didn't stay awake waiting for me to call, did you?" Ana asked worriedly, feeling guilty that she had forgotten to let him know they'd all come home safely. When he didn't reply she knew it was an affirmative and she felt even guiltier. "Everyone's fine. Mia's asleep on the sofa, Kate's taking pictures of herself in the kitchen and I was about to fall asleep when I remembered to call you." He chuckled on the other end of the line.

"I was about to call myself, I thought you might have forgotten."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, you had a fun night out and I'm just paranoid." It was touching that he was concerned about her. Concerned as a friend, nothing more, but very sweet all the same.

"I'll let you go now, I know Evie'll get you up early, I don't want you to be too exhausted."

"Speak to you tomorrow, Ana."

"Goodnight Christian."

* * *

AN: I was going to celebrate reaching 50 reviews at the end of this chapter but I just checked my emails and I actually have over 60 now which is incredible, thank you so much to all my readers but a huge shout out to those of you who leave comments, especially the ones that write them diligently for each chapter, I love getting to read about what you think and how you're enjoying the story. Just as a quick little 'where are we?' update I have a lot of chapters and plot points planned out but for those of you anxiously awaiting some semblance of romance I promise there's not too far to go now!


	10. Chapter 10

"And you should have seen Ana, this guy was trying to get with her all night, kept dancing super close to us, it was absolutely hilarious." Christian finally started paying attention to Mia's story which so far had been about how Ana used no adequate footwear for nights out and how hilarious it had been to watch Kate failing to seduce the bartender who Mia had 'known was gay' but had also 'decided not to tell Kate that fact' because 'it would be a less interesting story'. He tried to look as neutral as possible as he interrupted her monologue.

"Did she hook up with him?" She hadn't mentioned it on the phone but maybe she just hadn't thought he'd be interested. Christian hoped Mia couldn't hear the lump in his throat.

"What? No, obviously not, she was completely oblivious to this guy, and he was cute so it was a damn shame." Christian knew he had no right to feel as relieved as he did, no right to be possessive over her, but he couldn't help it. "She had a nice time but her mind was definitely somewhere else, I think she only agreed because she wanted a distraction from something. I thought it might be her break-up but Kate said she wasn't that bothered about it so I don't know what's going on. Do you have any idea?"

"No, she's seemed okay to me the last few days." Although there was that weird moment where she had spaced out in the kitchen and dropped the bowl, but Christian didn't think Ana would appreciate him telling Mia about that.

"Ready to go Mia?" Elliot walked into the room holding Evie, mercifully halting the conversation before Mia could talk anymore. Mia jumped up and nodded.

"Please be careful with my daughter." Christian asked them. Mia rolled her eyes.

"We're just going to the zoo, what's the worst that could happen?" Elliot asked, ruffling Evie's hair as she giggled. Christian raised his eyebrows. They had been going on a 'family day out' but his parents had needed to cancel and Mia and Elliot had decided they could have more fun with Evie if he wasn't there worrying all day. He couldn't disagree with them and he was sure between the two of them they were responsible enough to look after one child for a few hours.

"Lions could eat me." Evie pointed out and Christian nodded in agreement. Actually, Mia and Elliot probably weren't responsible enough to look after her, but she could probably look after herself and them and get them to buy her a few cuddly animals in the gift shop.

"That hopefully won't happen." Elliot attempted to reassure her. Evie looked at her father, exasperated in a way he had never known such a young child could be before.

"Call me if you need anything." Christian reminded them for the millionth time as they left his apartment, giving Evie a little wave as she chatted happily to Elliot about how excited she was to see the penguins. His brother was the least responsible of his siblings but he talked to Evie more than Mia did so Christian was glad they were both going.

As he shut the door he was aware he was alone in his apartment for the first time in a long time, and he realised how glad he was that he didn't live like this anymore.

Christian managed all of two minutes before he decided to go out, slightly disturbed by the silence of his house. It was like this in the mornings but it felt less lonely, he always knew that Evie would be running into the kitchen a little while later and the quiet wouldn't last. The prospect of spending the whole day like that was quite daunting, and he regretted not insisting on going with them. He'd take her out the next weekend, Ana had mentioned there was going to be a carnival, maybe he could take them both to that. As soon as she came into his mind, Christian decided he wanted to go and see Ana.

He stopped at the grocery store and bought a tub of her favourite ice-cream, the kind he knew she was partial to when she was hungover. Ana tended to get sleepily hungover, she didn't get headaches but she was useless for most of the day and slept a lot, Mia always seemed remarkably fine after nights out, and from what he'd heard from his sister, Kate tried not to be exposed to sunlight for the next three days she had such bad headaches.

On a whim he decided to buy her a bouquet of flowers, her favourite white carnations with pink tips on the petals. He told himself it wasn't a romantic gesture, or at least that she wouldn't take it as one. When he arrived he considered leaving them in the car before he decided he was thinking far too much about it and put them back in the bag.

Only walking up to Ana's apartment did Christian realise he probably should have called out of courtesy. He decided to knock instead of using the key he had, if she was asleep he didn't want her to wake up and think someone was robbing her.

Surprisingly Ana was awake, he could hear her on the phone as she unlocked the door from the inside and opened it.

"Hold on just a second." she said into the receiver and pressed it to her chest so whatever she said to Christian couldn't be heard. She looked stressed by the conversation she was having, probably not helped at all by the hangover. She was still in her pyjamas, grey cardigan thrown on top of them for warmth. "Hey, did we have plans?" she asked, giving him a hug with one arm and beckoning for him to come in. He shook his head as he entered her apartment, smaller and more colourful than his was.

"No but I brought you this." He took the ice cream out and showed it to her. "And these." He passed her the flowers. She looked delighted by both and he was glad he had made her happy. "Evie is out with Elliot and Mia and I thought I might as well come and keep you company." More like he had come over to force her into keeping him company, but whatever.

"Thank you! Just let me deal with this and then I'll make tea and we can have some of this ice cream."

"Sounds good." Ana held the phone back up to her ear and only had to say 'I'm back' before whoever was on the other end started talking quickly again. Christian sat on the sofa and noticed she had an episode of Law and Order SVU paused on her television, a show which she enjoyed but that occasionally made her paranoid about leaving the house but which she would continue to watch until the lawyer she had a slight crush on left. He wondered if it was her mother, Ana usually managed to get caught talking to her for hours. What he could hear of Ana's half of the conversation was only ever single words, if she tried to say much more she was quickly interrupted.

"Okay. Call me later when you decide." Christian heard her sighing into the phone before she hung up about three minutes after he arrived, exiting the kitchen with the ice cream tub, two spoons, and a tea and coffee on a tray. He'd criticised her tendency to have hot drinks with ice cream before but she had never paid attention to it and he was used to it by now. "I'm glad you're here." she told him as she sat down and smiled gently. "I was about to call." It clicked immediately that if she'd been about to call it must have been Vivienne she was speaking to.

"Twice in one week?" Christian asked her. Ana nodded. It was clear she was trying not to seem too upset by the whole affair even though he knew how hard it was for her to have these conversations. He was about to say she needed to stop answering the phone when she spoke again.

"She's in Texas." Christian couldn't help the look of horror that crossed his face. Ana nodded as if she agreed with it. This was the closest to his knowledge that Vivienne had been since she left, he was pretty sure she hadn't been back to the USA at all until now. 'Call me later when you decide' Ana had said. The idea that she might be considering coming back made him feel cold. Ana took his hand when she realised what he was thinking. "Don't worry, she's not coming here, she's not even thinking about it. She found a flight on a whim because she decided she wanted to see her father, Texas was the closest she could get to Arizona but now she's there she's having doubts." Christian felt an immense relief at this. "I know you worry she's going to come back, so I do I sometimes, but I don't think she ever will. I think now she's in a slightly better place mentally she knows what she did was wrong, I don't think she wants to drag up old memories by coming back or have everyone hate her."

"I know you're probably right, I'm just terrified she might and what that would mean for Evie."

"We'll deal with it if it ever happens." Ana reassured him, and once again he found himself very grateful that he had her in his life. He could never have coped without her after Vivienne left. She had moved in two days after, helped him to get into a nice routine of balancing work and his daughter as well as being good company for the six months she had stayed – far longer than the two weeks she had intended. "I wish I'd stopped you from meeting her." Ana said quietly. He looked at her and realised their hands were still linked. He made no effort to change this. "I think about it sometimes. If I'd been a bit more forceful she never would have approached you and you would have been spared all of this."

"Ana, that's not on you. You can't blame yourself for everything she did. And I'm not sorry that I met her. How it ended was awful but I wouldn't give up Evie for the world. And I wouldn't know you, I can't imagine not having you around now. I'd go through it all again five times worse if I still ended up here with a wonderful daughter and you."

"I should have known what she was going to do though, I knew her from when I was a kid, but I never thought she'd do anything like that."

"You couldn't have known any more than I could. She was like a hurricane. I was so blinded by how compelling and confident she was that I managed to marry her without realising we were fundamentally different people." He remembered his mother warning him against it. 'Ana seems much nicer' she'd said and he'd protested that he wasn't going to leave his then fiancée, especially not for her best friend. It was almost amusing to him now. "I was happy with where I was and I wanted to settle down. She was a romantic and she thought she could be happy with a quiet life but she was also young and indecisive and I should have realised that she wouldn't want to stay put for long. If she'd stayed I would have been miserable for longer, and I don't think for a second that we'd still be together if that's what you feel guilty about."

"Really?" Ana sounded as if the thought of that hadn't crossed her mind before. "I just assumed if she hadn't left like that you would have stayed with her."

"For a while maybe, but I think by now it would have ended anyway. The only difference is that Evie would have had to deal with being passed around between us, and considering that I'm almost relieved that she left the way she did. I wouldn't want my daughter being caught in the middle of something like that, it wouldn't be fair."

"I never even considered that before." Ana said, shaking her head. "But you're right. It was awful but Evie has a much more stable life this way. I don't think Vivienne would be great as a single mother if she'd been given custody."

"Exactly. Now let's talk about anything else and eat the whole tub of ice cream before it melts." Ana laughed and nodded.

"That sounds like a very good idea."

Christian was glad to have cleared up some misconceptions she had about Vivienne. Discussions about his ex-wife were not pleasant for him to engage in, and he would prefer to never think about her again, but he knew there was a lot of lingering guilt there for Ana and if he had any chance of having a relationship that was more than friends with her she had to know that he didn't blame her for anything that had happened, and that he didn't regret it anymore. He hoped that their conversation that day had helped a little.

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AN: So many of you have requested a Christian POV chapter that I thought I would try one out here where it felt natural in the story and see how it went, if you guys think this worked well I'll do more in the future. I think this chapter and the discussion in it was necessary to get to the romance - I'll reiterate how close we are, just hang on a little longer! Thank you again for all your reviews, I woke up this morning to an absolutely crazy number from last night, I hope you all continue to enjoy what I write!


	11. Chapter 11

"Thank you again for this."

It was seven thirty on a Friday morning the next week and Christian was standing in her doorway as she held Evie looking intensely stressed already. Evie's nanny had rung in sick – either she was daring enough to lie every few weeks about a different illness or she had the worst immune system on the planet. She had told Christian he needed to find someone more reliable.

"Oh, it's no problem, I'll set her up in my office with a little easel and she can charm all my customers by being adorable and then we're going to have lunch with Kate." Ana said as Evie nodded excitedly. She was delighted by the prospect of spending the day with Ana rather than her nanny.

"Sounds good. I'll pick her up from your gallery at five thirty." Ana nodded, he'd already been over this but even though things were sorted now he had a tendency to stay stressed for hours after an issue like this had been resolved. Evie looked at her and Ana put her down so she could play with the doll she'd brought. She was as good as Christian at knowing exactly what the little girl wanted from just a look. "Call me if you need anything or if there's any problem and I'll drive over and take her to my office." Ana smiled at him and reached out to straighten his tie which in the rush he'd had that morning he had fastened on crooked. "What would I do without you?" he asked with a grin.

"I think you'd explode from all the stress. Don't worry about us, I'll make sure Evie has a lovely day and you can get on with all your work."

After a few more minutes of emanating stress Christian finally said goodbye to both of them and headed off to work. Ana wasn't even dressed yet, she'd still been asleep when Christian called and she'd barely had time to make herself a cup of tea before he arrived. She was still barely awake, so much had happened since she woke up that it felt quite surreal.

"Ana, can I pick what you wear today please?" Evie asked her.

"Yeah, of course." Evie grinned and ran to her bedroom, she didn't come over often in the mornings but Ana always let her pick her outfits when she did. Evie was usually pretty good at it, nothing ever clashed horribly. Still, she had never picked them for work before and Ana thought she better hurry after her and make sure she didn't pick anything inappropriate. She tried not to look overly professional at work given that she worked with artists and didn't like to project too clinical an atmosphere.

"Wear this so we match!" Evie exclaimed as she happened upon a navy dress and yellow cardigan. It amused Ana what a close match it was to what Christian had chosen for Evie, although a little more grown up with a lace dress rather than a cotton one.

"One of my favourites, good choice!" Ana praised her, quickly diving into her ensuite to get changed and apply a little make up.

When they arrived Ana set Evie up in her office with a small easel and some card. Evie knew that she was allowed to chat away to Ana unless someone came into her office, then she was to be as quiet as she could until they left. Evie had decided she was going to paint some portraits, starting with Ana and then going onto Kate so she could give something to her when she picked them both up for lunch later in the day. Ana was pleased she had some children's aprons lying around from when they had done a workshop during the summer, Christian probably wouldn't be too happy if she gave Evie back to him at the end of the day caked in paint, although Ana quickly realised she was very neat about it.

Ana had her first visitor at about quarter past ten, one of her artists bearing a gingerbread latte, the only kind of coffee Ana actually enjoyed, and some good news.

"Your daughter?" Daniel asked her as he locked eyes one Evie who smiled at him and waved, luckily with the hand that wasn't holding her paintbrush. Ana motioned for him to take a seat opposite her and shook her head.

"She's actually my friend's daughter; I'm just looking after her for the day." Ana thought that might be oversimplifying her relationship with Evie a little, and she almost felt guilty for it but a long winded explanation would be pointless. Ana often worried that one day Evie would ask her why she was around so much if she wasn't her mother, but maybe she was intelligent enough to have sussed it out already. Or maybe she'd ask Christian and he'd have to be the one to deal with that, although she imagined he would ask Evie to wait and ring Ana in a state of panic to come over and help him explain.

"I'm Evie!" she said, seeing that the conversation was about her before she went back to painting quietly.

"It's nice to meet you, Evie." Daniel said to her and Ana smiled at him, thankful that he was being so nice to her, some of her artists were a little snobbish and likely would have ignored her. "Ana, I have great news, remember I mentioned Hanna a few weeks ago? My boyfriend's step-sister?" Ana nodded, she had a vague recollection of that discussion because he'd mentioned she was an artist too. "Well she's looking to set up an exhibition in Seattle and she'd like to have a meeting with you to see if the gallery would be a good fit for her. I showed her a few things you'd done over the years and she was really excited about the space. It would be really good for the gallery, she's completely blown up in New York and she wants to try for national success."

Daniel showed her a few of Hanna's pictures, collections of photographs and paintings which Ana would be proud to display. She was number two on that years' TIME magazine artists to watch list and some of her paintings were already selling for multiple thousands. Ana knew the importance of building a relationship with an artist like that could not be overstated, picking the gallery for an exhibition was one thing but liking it enough that she would continue to come back was far more important. Of course one artist couldn't save her from debt but it might encourage others to use her in the near future and if she did have to borrow from Christian – which she was still determined not to – she might have to take less than she would otherwise.

"I like her more than you already." Ana teased Daniel who huffed and shoved her hard enough that her chair rolled nearly a metre away from her desk. Ana laughed good naturedly and she shuffled back with the chair.

Ana left Evie with Daniel for an hour or so as she went around to take pictures of the gallery to send to Hanna who was apparently delighted than Ana wanted to meet with her and was eager to see the space.

"Do you want to see my picture of us first?" Evie asked her hopefully.

"Of course!" Ana exclaimed, and walked around to the other side of the easel, avoiding all the paintings that were drying on the floor, including portraits of all her family members done with varying accuracy. The one she was doing now was of the pair of them dressed in their close matching outfits from that day and Ana smiled until she saw the title painted above it and her heart dropped a little. 'Me + Mommy'.

"Do you like it?" Evie asked her hopefully. Ana swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.

"You're such a good artist!" Ana assured her, making sure she was tilted away enough from Evie that the tears in her eyes were well hidden. She kissed Evie on the top of her forehead before she left, wondering how and when she was supposed to breach this topic with Christian. She was a young girl, of course she was going to get confused. Ana felt annoyed at herself for thinking that Evie was too smart to be confused by what any child would find to be a difficult situation.

Ana couldn't understand why now – Evie never called her 'mommy' or any variation of it. Maybe it was just something she was trying out, seeing if it was right or not. Ana knew she would have to talk to Christian about a plan of action sooner rather than later. The worst part was that she didn't mind it at all, she felt almost proud of the way Evie thought of her, but she had no idea how Christian would take to it. The whole thing was stressing her out so much that she could barely remember how to use her camera, and she was sure she had picked up a tendency towards stress from Christian because she had used to be a relatively calm and care-free person.

She was just taking the last of the shots from outside when Kate approached her. She hadn't realised it was so close to lunch time.

Ana kept Kate outside for a few minutes while she explained the picture to her.

"You can't blame her, Ana, you said Christian was starting to take her to those groups, she probably sees all these other children calling women 'mommy' that they're close to and she just assumed that's what you are. She probably doesn't want to say it out loud in case you correct her, hence the painting as an outlet rather than speech." Ana raised her eyebrows and Kate shrugged. "I'm just guessing." Ana was impressed by how close Kate was to what she thought and how psychologically accurate that sounded.

"I know, and I don't mind, I'm just worried about what Christian's going to think. I don't want him to think I encourage this or told her something confusing…"

"Ana, I really don't think he'll mind, I mean you are like a mother to her, you're always around, you take care of her and you love her, it's not a wrong assumption for her to make and I don't see why Christian would take issue with it." Kate said with a shrug. Ana sighed heavily.

"Yeah but I'm not her mother. I didn't give birth to her, I'm just someone who helps."

"So what, people adopt kids they didn't give birth to and they love them like they're theirs. Hell, Christian's adopted, if anyone's going to understand the kind of bond that can form between a child and a non-biological parental figure it's him. He knows how much Evie loves you, surely it won't come as a shock that she considers you her mother." Kate reasoned with her. It was a very rare occasion when Kate was more reasonable than Ana was which just highlighted to Ana that she needed to calm down a little and stop worrying about it.

Ana collected Evie, thanking Daniel for looking after her. Kate was pleased with the picture Evie had done for her because her 'eyes and hair looked perfect' which Ana thought was more Kate complimenting herself than Evie but the little girl seemed happy enough with the praise so she didn't mention it.

Kate had managed to pick a restaurant suitable for Evie to eat at which was rare because Kate liked to eat in very pretentious places. She insisted on it being her treat and dragging the pair of them shopping after they finished lunch.

"You two should get more matching outfits." Kate said to Ana as she looked through a rack of toddler's skirts. "You look super cute today." Kate had taken a number of pictures of the two of them at lunch, gushing over the co-ordination, laughing when she found out that Evie had picked Ana's outfit wondering idly how a three year old could 'already be better at dressing you than you are at dressing yourself'.

Kate took them back to the gallery for the rest of the afternoon and as she hugged Ana goodbye she told her 'don't stress'. Ana promised she would try not to. She wasn't sure how well she would be able to keep the promise. Before she went back to work she sent Christian a text to let him know they'd had a nice lunch and Evie was fine.

 _CG 13.47: Glad you're having a good day. Looking forward to seeing you later._

It made her smile for a minute before the thought crossed her mind that she might be so affected by Evie's painting because of how she felt about him, because somewhere deep down she wished she actually was Evie's mother, but she was determined to push the thought aside so she could actually get some work done that afternoon.

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AN: I'm at 100 reviews now and 200 follows, I cannot stress enough how grateful I am to all of you for the support and lovely comments that you've given me, I was tempted not to write this chapter today having spent the afternoon in the hospital (I am home now and completely fine, it was my own fault for wearing heels in the rain) but seeing how much you all enjoy reading this really keeps me motivated so thank you all!


	12. Chapter 12

"I loved the pictures you sent me of the gallery!" Ana was on the phone to Hanna and she was trying not to sound like she was too excited about brokering a deal with her. Apart from being good for the gallery, the girl was a very talented artist, and Ana would be honoured to display her work. She was trying to strike a balance, not wanting to be over-excited but also definitely not wanting to seem ambivalent about her work. Artists liked enthusiasm, especially about their own work.

"Well I loved what Daniel showed me of your work, I think your style would fit in very well with the atmosphere I've tried to create here."

"I was thinking exactly the same – I'm in Seattle from Tuesday next week and I'd love to come and see the place for myself and make a final decision, but honestly it's looking good, I've seen a few other places online and I like yours much more, and Daniel speaks very highly of you and your dedication to the artists you display." Ana blushed a little at the compliment. Daniel had always been one of her favourites, an amazing discovery and one of the first to join the gallery.

Opening a gallery had always been Ana's joint dream with Vivienne, it had been the reason they both took degrees in Art rather than the subjects their parents were pushing them towards, but the second they were out of college Vivienne was engaged and had decided that she was going to focus on painting, not seeing the need to start a business and so Ana had started it on her own, something Vivienne resented her for but could never say because she had been given ample opportunity to join the venture. Ana had always disagreed, thinking Vivienne should try to do something more productive with her time being as her days tended to consist of her staring at a blank canvas and then watching movies instead. Ana wondered if she had consented to trying for a baby because she had hoped a child would be something more to occupy her time with, and Kate was right, it might not have been why she left but at least part of why Vivienne had stayed gone was because she realised that playing the housewife didn't suit her as much as she'd hoped.

"Well I try my best." Ana said, trying to shake off the compliment. She'd never been much good at accepting them. "Next Tuesday should be fine, just drop in whenever you're free."

"Sounds good!" Hanna said, and it made Ana happy that she sounded almost as excited as she was. "It'll probably be in the afternoon rather than the morning, I'm not really a morning person." If Ana had a dollar for every time an artist had said that phrase to her she would be in much less financial trouble than she currently was. It was probably hard for someone who worked for themselves to bother getting out of bed before ten, she knew artists who slept all day because they found the night more inspiring. As long as they delivered projects when they said they would, Ana didn't care what crazy hours they kept, even staying in her office late into the evening so she could meet with the ones who's schedules did not align with the rest of society.

"I'm really looking forward to it!" Ana told her sincerely. Hanna giggled and just from that Ana could already tell she was going to like her in person.

"Me too! Bye Ana!"

Daniel came into her office just before he went home to make sure things had gone well, assuring her again that Hanna would love the gallery and everything was going to go well. Ana was glad she had him around to keep her grounded. She gave him a tight hug and quietly thanked him again. Daniel hadn't been told what was going on with the gallery but he'd known her long enough that he could guess.

Instead of Christian coming to collect Evie later it was Grace who knocked on the door to Ana's office. Ana stood up from her desk and went over to give the older woman a kiss on the cheek before Evie launched herself into her grandmother's arms.

"Did Christian get held up at work?"

"No, he's just on his way now, I saw him parking when I was coming in." Grace told her which did not answer her unasked question about why Grace was there in the first place, but before she could ask it Grace was speaking to Evie. "Have you had a good day with Ana, darling?" Evie nodded happily, resting her head on Grace's shoulder.

"I did lots of paintings and we had a girl's lunch and Kate bought me some clothes." Evie told her happily.

"Can I see what you painted?" Grace asked her and she walked over to the floor space which was completely covered in paintings in various states of drying and allowed Evie to explain what they all were in detail. Ana had the one Evie had done for her tucked away in her purse and she hoped that Evie wouldn't suggest showing it to Grace, she thought it was important to discuss it with Christian herself, it didn't seem fair to talk to his mother about it first. Just as she was thinking this Christian knocked on her door and entered the room without a response, likely hearing Evie's joyful voice talking to Grace and assuming it would be okay.

"Sorry I'm late, apparently my mother decided she needed to take up both the spaces closest to the door because she can't bay park." Christian said fondly, walking over to give his mother and daughter a kiss on the cheek. Grace ignored him entirely.

"Don't the three of you look adorable together?" Grace said, and Ana realised with slight embarrassment that the dress Evie had picked out for her was a near identical shade of blue to the shirt Christian was wearing. Christian seemed to notice at the same time as her but he seemed almost pleased by the realisation.

"Did Evie pick yours too?" he asked her. Ana laughed softly and nodded. "Well, forget her inheriting my company, I think she's got a future in fashion co-ordinating us all like this." Evie looked pleased that her efforts were being praised. Ana nodded, she'd have to tell Kate about this later, Kate would probably push her into fashion so that one day Evie could get her free designer clothes.

"Oh, let me get a picture of the three of you?" Grace asked.

"Not in Ana's office, mom, wait until we all go outside, it's nice and sunny." Christian suggested and Grace nodded in agreement with the idea.

"Right, not that it's not lovely to see you Grace, but why are you here?" Ana asked, trying to be as polite as possible towards Grace, never wanting to offend her by suggesting that she wasn't delighted to see her but also still slightly confused about the situation. Grace frowned and turned towards her son.

"Have you not asked her yet?" Grace questioned him, to which Christian rolled his eyes.

"I didn't want to disturb her at work!" Christian said exasperatedly. Grace shook her head at him and, never one to let her lack of understanding about the conversation deter her, Evie did the same. Grace gave Christian a look as if to say that his daughter joining in proved whatever point she was making. "Ana, I thought it would be nice since you did me such a favour in taking care of Evie today if I took you out to dinner tonight, Mom's going to take Evie home and watch her for a few hours if you're free and you actually want to come, obviously you don't have to, I just thought-" Ana held a hand up before he could keep on with the flustered rambling. He'd never asked her out for dinner just the two of them before, in groups yes, and sometimes when he asked Kate and her Kate would cancel leaving just the pair of them and he'd asked her over for dinner. She was really happy he had and was already having to remind herself that it wasn't a date he was asking her on.

It kind of felt like a date though.

"I'd love to, that sounds great!" Ana assured him, and Christian actually looked relieved that she had said yes to him.

"He was worried you'd say no." Grace informed her with another shake of her head, again mirrored by Evie. Christian did not look happy with this revelation and Ana tried not to laugh at the pair of them together, Christian with his mother was more childish than Evie sometimes. "He called me up to make sure it was a good idea – 'she's spent the whole day with Evie, you don't think she'll just want to go home?' I told him not to worry, even if you wanted to say no you're far too polite." Ana laughed even though she was trying hard not to.

"Right, that's enough, remember you wanted to take a picture of us all?" Christian reminded his mother who nodded eagerly, mind now adequately diverted from embarrassing him. "Let's all go now, nice and silently."

"Don't be mean to your mother!" Ana scolded him playfully as they followed Grace and Evie out of the room. Christian scowled like a child.

"She started it!" Ana laughed again.

"You're worse than Evie!"

Grace took a while to get the 'perfect picture' of the three of them. Evie was more patient with this than Christian was who kept shouting instructions at her as to how to use her phone and then her camera when she decided the picture might look nicer on that. Ana was trying very hard not to laugh because she knew if she did that Grace would have to take another picture and delay them for another ten minutes.

"These are all fine, mom!" Christian told her as he looked through them. Grace shrugged.

"I wanted to get the best one possible. I'll get you a copy of it, I think it would be a nice one for you to have framed in your house." Grace told Christian who nodded in agreement. Ana tried not to feel too proud that he wanted that picture of them in his house, one where they all matched and looked like a happy family. Evie's picture came into her mind again. She was almost loathe to bring up the subject with Christian – would it be an appropriate topic for dinner? Was there really even an issue to discuss? She liked that Evie thought of her like a mother, she certainly thought of the little girl like a daughter. If she just left it then maybe Evie would introduce the idea to Christian and he would be okay with it too. The idea of shutting Evie down, having to explain that no, she wasn't her mother, her mother had run off and abandoned her and Ana was just someone who had stepped into help was heart-breaking. She didn't want Evie to think that she was a burden to her because that was absolutely not the case, Ana loved her and spending time with her was not an obligation. She wanted Evie to be old enough to understand all of that before they had this conversation.

"Okay, well we'd better be off." Christian said with a small smile. He gave his mother another kiss on the cheek as well as his daughter, and he and Ana waved them off from the sidewalk.

"Do you think I need to change?" Ana asked him. She'd walked into work and she was glad she had because it meant she didn't have her car to worry about and she could just travel with Christian. He looked at her like she was mad and shook his head.

"Of course not, you look lovely. Besides, we match, and Evie would throw a fit if she knew you'd changed out of her carefully selected outfit."

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AN: Thank you all so much for your concern and well wishes, I am fine apart from a swollen ankle, a small lump on my head and a very bruised ego! As always thank you for follows, favourites, and reviews, please keep them coming, I love reading them and I'm always happy to answer questions if you have them!


	13. Chapter 13

"Ana, you picked the music in the car and I was very accommodating and didn't complain about you forcing me to listen to Footloose four times which means I am allowed to select whichever restaurant I want." Christian reminded Ana as they were seated at a table.

"I know the rules, all I'm saying is if you knew where you wanted to go we could have parked closer and avoided the rain." Ana's cardigan was now balled up in her purse having been used as a very ineffective woollen umbrella as they dashed from the car to the restaurant. Ana didn't look too bad apart from her hair being a little messed up from the cardigan, the only major annoyance was how wet her feet had gotten in the flat pumps she had chosen that morning. Still, she had been rather annoyed when she saw a few parking spaces outside the outrageously expensive restaurant he had chosen. Of course Christian had managed to keep his composed and flawless appearance, if anything the rain had made him look even more handsome.

"Where would be the fun in that?" Christian asked her with a smirk. She sighed dramatically before she laughed and picked up the menu.

"You and Kate are unbelievable, you realise that if you were less pretentious about where you ate you'd realise you can get good food for less than half these prices and most of the time they don't have stupid names that no-one can pronounce." They had this discussion fairly often when Ana went out to dinner anywhere with him.

"Some of us can pronounce them." Christian reminded her with a quirked eyebrow and she knew he was remembering the time she had first teased him for eating in places like that, going on a slight tirade about how people weren't better for eating there, they were just displaying their wealth and she had ruined it all by not being able to correctly pronounce 'quinoa' when it came to ordering. He'd found that a lot more amusing than Ana thought it actually was.

"Honestly I spend the whole day tirelessly looking after your daughter and this is the thanks I get? Painful memories being dragged up before I've even had a glass of wine."

"I can only apologise. We'll go through more embarrassing memories later."

Ana shot him a warning look but said nothing as the waitress came over to take their order.

"Well I don't see why you don't just get a driver, you and Evie always have to be in different places and there's only one of you, I think it was a good idea that you should look into." Ana sighed after he complained that he couldn't have a nice glass of wine with his meal. Vivienne hadn't expressly forbidden him from hiring staff while they were married but she had expressed a certain distaste for the idea, which Ana thought was because she had done so little around the house anyway that hiring staff would have made her feel even more useless. When Ana lived there she had done as much as she could to help and between the two of them they managed to keep his house clean and keep up with the work but living alone he really could have used a few people to help.

"Let me work on hiring a reliable nanny first." Christian chuckled and Ana agreed that was probably a good idea.

"I mean I love Evie and today was fun but I think she's painted everyone she knows now and that's about the only fun thing there is for her to do at the gallery." Ana was delighted at the natural segue into bringing up the picture Evie had done for her earlier in the day, the conversation was casual and light and it didn't seem too much like it had been playing on Ana's mind all day even though it had been. She felt almost like she was betraying the little girl by bringing this up with her father. "Speaking of Evie though…"

"What did she do?" Christian asked her, sounding more interested than concerned. He knew his own daughter and that Ana wasn't about to tell him of some gross misbehaviour. Ana smiled at him and reached into her purse. A picture speaks a thousand words after all.

"She painted me this today." Ana told him as she handed it over.

"Oh she did your matching outfits. Maybe she'll be an artist instead of running my business or fashion designing." Christian said as he admired his daughters work. Ana quirked an eyebrow, that had certainly not been the reaction she expected, and she was rather irritated with herself for spending so long worrying about it that day, although she still thought that it warranted a full discussion even if Christian didn't mind about it.

"As wonderful as Evie is I was more showing it to you because of the title." Ana tapped the top of the page and Christian sighed.

"She didn't ask you first?" Christian questioned her.

"Ask me what? Is this something she's said before?"

"Not said, she asked a few days ago why the other girls in that toddler group I take her to were calling these women 'mommy' and why you weren't her mommy. I explained best I could but she insisted that the only criteria seemed to be women who the children were spending a lot of time around and she said that was like what you were. I think she's recognised that it's the term the others use for women who care for them and that it's something more special than using your name, but I did say she was to make sure it was okay with you before she started saying it. Apparently she doesn't pay very much attention to me." Ana smiled softly, still a little perturbed by what he was saying. "I am sorry Ana, I possibly should have mentioned that she'd done this, I didn't think she'd have any problem with asking you, she's usually so confident."

"Kate did mention that this might be her way of asking and that by not correcting her I was essentially saying yes to the idea."

"If you mind I'll have a talk with her tomorrow and try to explain why she can't do this. It's fine if this isn't something you're comfortable with." Christian assured her, although she quickly shook her head to let him know this wasn't her line of thinking at all. She was delighted that Christian was okay with this and that he was supporting it, although him encouraging her even further into his family and his life like this was going to do nothing to help her crush which seemed to be getting worse and worse. She wasn't sure it could even be considered a crush, she had said to Kate she was in love with him when she was drunk at the bar days ago and to her sober mind it was seeming increasingly like this was what was true. She knew the further involved with this she got the worse it was going to feel if he started a relationship to someone else, but maybe then it would also be harder for him to push her out. Hopefully Evie would hate having another woman around that wasn't Ana and any relationship wouldn't last very long.

She felt a little guilty for hoping that all future relationships of his were going to end badly and swiftly but not guilty enough to stop hoping it either.

"No, I don't mind, of course I don't. I thought it would be something you wouldn't want her to do, I was actually really proud, I know it's silly because she's not mine and in the end it is just a meaningless title and it doesn't mean she loves me any more or less than yesterday but it meant a lot to me. As long as you're okay with it, if that's what she wants to call me then of course she can."

"Well I'm really pleased about that." Christian passed her the painting back. She was going to put it up in her office and proudly say yes when people asked her whether or not her daughter had painted it for her. "I consider you her mother much more than I do Vivienne. She gave birth to her and left, you are the one who stepped up and took care of her and loved her, and that is what makes a mother, not anything else. You're not some consolation prize for her because her real mother wasn't there, to Evie you are her mother, the only one she's ever known or needed." Ana actually felt herself tearing up at the sentiment that Christian was expressing.

"You're going to make me cry." she warned him with a small laugh. He looked worried for a minute and took her hand over the table.

"Don't cry, Be happy, this is a nice thing."

"That's the reason I'm crying!"

"Well surely this isn't that surprising. You've been our family for years." _Our family._ Not Evie's family, our family. It always meant so much to her when he said something like that.

They ate dinner with a decidedly lighter conversation. Christian let Ana talk for over ten minutes about the book she was reading at the moment which she was very invested in. She'd got very into crime fiction recently and she just wanted to discuss who the murderer was going to be in this novel. Christian would have to do as therapy until she could persuade someone else to read it. She might have had more of a chance if she didn't spoil the twists all the time.

"Why is it always raining when we try to walk anywhere?" Ana asked exasperatedly, fishing out her cardigan from her purse to once again use as a fairly useless umbrella.

"Make a run for it?" Christian asked her and laughing Ana agreed, letting him grab her hand before they launched into a run in the general direction of where he had parked, and she was thankful she was holding onto him because with the rain and how much she was laughing she could barely see a foot in front of her. They made it to his car just as the rain eased off.

"You have to be kidding me!" Ana exclaimed, looking irritatedly at the sky as though it was doing it on purpose. It probably was. "How bad does my makeup look? Be honest."

"It's absolutely fine, you still look beautiful." Ana blushed at the compliment and shook her head.

"Don't be ridiculous, I look exactly the same as always."

"Well, exactly." Christian said as though this was the most obvious thing in the world as he looked at her very closely. She diverted her eyes before he brought a hand up to her face and cupped her cheek gently, and Ana honestly thought she might have stopped breathing because there was no way this could actually be happening.

He leaned in and kissed her and for a moment she stood, utterly shocked by what was happening, only reciprocating when she felt his arms sliding around her waist. She looped her arms around his neck and just allowed herself to become lost in the kiss for a minute. She refused to think of anything but him, anything but the fact that he wanted her just like she wanted him. Only when he pulled away from her did the guilt begin to settle in.

 _Your best friend's husband._

 _Remember, ex-best friend, ex-husband, I'm not doing anything wrong._

And oddly she remembered the first time she and Christian had gone to dinner alone, the night before his wedding, having been supposed to attend with Vivienne and Elliot too. Vivienne had bad back pains and had gone to bed, worried she wouldn't be able to get through the wedding if she didn't, and Elliot had found a bridesmaid he quite liked and followed her to a bar rather than going with Ana and Christian. It was the first time she had realised she liked Christian as her own friend rather than just an extension of Vivienne.

She had rung Ana about eight times over the two hour dinner, sometimes with questions, sometimes wanting Ana to bring her something up, and every time Ana had jumped up and done whatever Vivienne was requesting.

"Are you going to spend your whole life trying to please her?" Christian had asked her once with a smile.

"You probably are too once she's your wife." Ana had answered, deflecting the question.

"You know you don't owe her anything, you don't have to do everything she asks and spend your life making sure she's happy. You have a right to be happy on your own, remember." It had been the first time she had decided she really liked Christian who had seemed to her very deluded about the control Vivienne would end up having over him. Of course she'd left him before Christian could devote his life to making her happy in the same way that Ana had, it was why he didn't still take calls from her and why Ana did.

"Are you okay, Ana?" Christian asked, jogging her out of the deep thought she had fallen into and she smiled brightly at him and rested her forehead against his and decided to take his advice because, as Christian would so politely say, fuck it. She did deserve to be happy.

"Yeah, I'm amazing." she assured him, and with a confidence which she didn't know how she had acquired she leaned in to kiss him again.


	14. Chapter 14

"How late are we?" Ana asked Christian as they pulled into a parking space.

"Twenty minutes or so, Mom's not going to mind, especially if she guesses why we were late." Ana giggled as the blush crept up her cheeks. "You know she's going to be delighted by this when she inevitably guesses exactly what happened at dinner. She's a big fan of yours."

"Well of course she is, I'm wonderful." Ana brushed it off, secretly delighted that Grace liked her so much. The pair of them got out of the car and once they were walking side by side, Christian wrapped an arm around her waist. Ana attempted to remain neutral even though on the inside she was squealing with delight. It was surprising how comfortable and natural this felt. "Surely she's not going to guess the second we walk in."

"This is my mother we're talking about. Of course she will." Ana laughed as she stepped into the elevator with him. "She's known I've had a thing for you for… God, probably longer than I have." Ana laughed and rolled her eyes.

"You 'have a thing for me'? How romantic." she teased him. He met her eyes for a second before he pulled her into him, arms going around her waist like it was instinct.

"How would you like me to say it than, Anastasia?" he asked her quietly, and Ana hated her full name but there was something about him saying it that made her feel like she was melting. This was not the same man Grace had described who'd been worried she'd say no to a dinner with just him, this was Christian self-assured and because he knew that Ana was his now. She hadn't needed to ask what them kissing meant because he had held onto her for so long after they'd broken apart she had known immediately it wasn't spur of the moment, it wasn't going to be a few kisses, and apology, and forgotten the next day, this was what they were now, and they had fallen naturally into it in a way that made Ana incredibly regretful for the years they'd spent just being friends.

"Hmm…" Ana said thoughtfully, placing a soft kiss on his jawline which was temptingly just above her lips now. "I think you need to come up with something on your own."

"Well, how about I can barely think when I'm around you, you are so wonderfully beautiful and intelligent. I've never been so captivated every time somebody spoke before, you. You get so passionate about everything, the artists you like, the books you read, and I've never known anyone like that. You're so caring and accepting and I don't know how I could survive without you now. I am utterly in love with you." Ana just looked at him in awe for a moment and she could tell he was trying hard not to look to smug. "How was that?"

"Very good. Full marks I think." Ana said, still a little stunned. And he thought she was the captivating speaker. Ana kissed him softly, aware they only had a few seconds before the elevator stopped and they had to walk into his apartment. She broke away and rested her forehead on his. "I love you too Christian."

The doors opened and the pair exited and went into Christian's apartment. Grace was on the sofa reading to Evie who jumped off her grandmother's lap and ran towards Ana and Christian, likely not caring which of them scooped her up into their arms. Ana let it be Christian because he had barely seen his daughter that day.

"I'm sorry, I did try to put her to bed but she insisted on waiting up for you." Grace explained to her son, but he was in such a good mood that Ana could tell he didn't care.

Ana was still amused at the hierarchy that clearly existed in Christian's family, because he might be a boss at work but in his family his mother was quite clearly in charge of him and Evie called the shots when it came to both of them. It was impressive that a three year old was already so versed in making people do what she wanted, she was going to be excellent if Christian trained her up to take over his company, probably even better than he was at it. After all, her skills were only going to grow as she got older, a slightly worrying if impressive thought.

"Don't worry about it, she's Ana's problem again tomorrow." Christian assured her earning himself a glare from Ana. "She wasn't any trouble, was she?"

"Of course not, she's an absolute angel." Grace said as she got up from her seat and started collecting her things and placing them back into her purse. "She's done a lot of wonderful pictures today, she was telling me how much she liked spending time at the gallery with Ana, weren't you?" Evie nodded happily, trying to stifle a yawn. Grace saw that and smiled. "I'll be off so you can put her to bed."

Grace gave Ana a hug and a kiss on the cheek and did the same to her son and granddaughter before she left the apartment.

"She told me she's very happy for us." Christian told her quietly once he had sent Evie to brush her teeth and Ana laughed. "I feel like we weren't much different to normal, I really don't know how she knows these things. It must be witchcraft."

"Don't call your mother a witch!" Ana scolded him as she laughed. "There's two things that may have alerted her to a change – one, you're in a surprisingly good mood and you didn't mind that Evie was still up this late into the evening or two – I came back with you instead of getting you to take me home and after a private dinner together that seems a little suspicious." Christian chuckled and nodded in agreement with her.

"It's not like you haven't stayed before though." Christian reminded her.

"Yes but usually just because I'm here, rarely have I just showed up alongside you with the purpose of spending the night."

"After a first date, no less."

"That hadn't crossed my mind, perhaps I should go home. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression of me."

"That's fine by me, but you can tell Evie that you won't be here tomorrow."

"Okay, you've got me, I can't do that, she'll never speak to me again." Christian laughed and put an arm around her waist and walked with her to Evie's room so they could put her to bed together. She rarely requested that the both put her to bed but that night she had and neither of them had complained, and standing in the bedroom watching Christian tucking in his daughter Ana really felt like they were a little family. They were unconventional, there was no denying, how many people adopted their ex-best friend's child and fell in love with their ex-husband while they were doing it? Ana didn't think there were many in the world, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She didn't regret that Vivienne had had Christian before she had because then they wouldn't have Evie.

"Goodnight, sweetie." Ana said to her, placing a kiss on her forehead. Evie smiled up at her from her little bed where she was tucked in with tonight's toy of choice, a slightly faded lion that Ana had bought her a week after she moved in when Evie was three weeks old.

"Night, mommy." Evie said to her and she felt Christian's arm around her shoulders when she did like he was making sure she was okay with it. Ana smiled and stroked her hair lovingly, silently letting her know that what she had called her was fine. As though Ana could ever have a problem with something like that. She did love Evie like she was her own, and Christian was right. She was more mother to her than the woman who had given birth to her and abandoned her, and she would be honoured to take the title now it was being offered to her.

"You okay?" Christian asked her softly when they walked out of the room. She nodded swiftly, not wanting him to think she was having any kind of doubts about letting Evie call her that.

"Of course! It's been a slightly overwhelming day with that and you and I didn't even mention the good news to you about my gallery yet because one of my artists put me in touch with his boyfriend's sister and she wants to use the gallery for an exhibition in Seattle and she's a really big deal and she could save me a lot of trouble financially so it's just been a lot of good news." In fact, Ana couldn't remember the last time she'd had a day this good. Half of her expected Vivienne to show up at his door right that second because there was no way a day could stay as perfect as that one had been. It didn't happen, instead Christian took her over to the sofa and sat her down.

"Ana, that's fantastic, I'm so pleased for you." He kissed her on the top of her head. "Let's celebrate properly with a drink, red or white wine?"

"White please."

Christian went through to the kitchen to get them both a drink, and just as he disappeared in there Ana's phone started ringing and Ana felt like her heart dropped into her stomach, sure it must be Vivienne on the other end to ruin things. She breathed a very deep sigh of relief when she saw Kate's name on the screen.

"Ana you would not believe the shitty date I just have and I've been ringing you're fucking doorbell for ten minutes, would you please just let me in so I can tell you about this guy. So fucking handsy, it got so bad that I had to kick him. You would have been proud." Kate was slurring her words, definitely drunk as she usually was when she went out on a date she didn't enjoy. Ana had to smile at the sound of her voice, mainly because she was so glad it was her on the phone.

"Oh Kate I'm really sorry, I'm not at home." Ana told her. "I went to dinner with Christian and I ended up at his."

"That's so annoying! Now I have to go all the way home." Ana knew she likely wouldn't, she'd probably use the spare key she had and crash on Ana's sofa, but Ana didn't actually mind that, it was probably safer for her to stay there than to try to navigate Seattle late at night when she'd been drinking. "Actually, I might stay here." Kate told her, confirming her suspicions. "So, dinner with Christian? You need to tell him how you feel, Ana, you're perfect for each other and I'd really like to win the bet I have with Mia, you'd be doing me a nice favour."

"Well, slight improvement on that front actually, he kissed me tonight." Ana admitted, and upon hearing it Kate actually screamed on the other end of the phone, and Ana recoiled, moving it away from her ear a little. "Yes, I was quite excited too. Actually, he said he was in love with me." Ana was smiling the whole time she spoke. It still felt surreal that this was all actually happening. Kate elicited another scream and Ana laughed. "You're going to wake my neighbours!" she warned her. Kate ignored this and went back to the interesting gossip, as Ana was sure she viewed it.

"Tell me you told him you loved him back!" Kate implored her. Apparently she was an even bigger fan of them as a couple than Grace was. Ana supposed she should be happy that so many members of her extended family were pleased with her relationship. Ana certainly was. "I know you do Ana, I swear if you told him some bullshit about how it was too early…"

"No, of course I said it back. I told you the other night I was. I am. I love him."

"Ana, I'm so pleased!" Kate sounded happy but also like she was about to burst into tears. "And you know Evie is going to be delighted."

"We haven't told her yet, it's a bit late to get her all worked up but I think tomorrow we're both going to sit down with her and explain what this means but I agree, I think she's going to be very pleased, especially now she's calling me 'mommy'."

"She is? Oh, Ana, too much has happened to you today, you need to limit yourself to one thing per day."

"I'm sorry! It has been a little overwhelming, but I can't complain."

"I'll let you go then, I think we need to meet up tomorrow and go over all of this when I am sober and less bemused by these events, I'll call you in the morning. Say hi to your boyfriend for me!" Kate squealed before she hung up and Ana laughed and went to put the phone down on the table before she paused and turned it over in her hands nervously. She was going to jump every time the phone rang, terrified it would be Vivienne. She didn't owe her anything. She'd been dealing with her for three years and she didn't owe her anymore. If she had any chance of making things work with Christian she couldn't be talking to his ex-wife every few weeks when she decided to ring and she couldn't be worrying the rest of the time that it was going to be her on the other end of the phone whenever it rang. She couldn't build a life like that.

Ana found her contact and blocked the number. Vivienne had her home number, and if it was urgent she could call that. Chances were that she wouldn't bother because she would think the better of calling her, and that Ana decided, was exactly what she wanted.

"Was that Kate on the phone?" Christian asked her as he came to sit beside her and handed her a glass. He put and arm around her and she settled comfortably into him. It felt very domestic, and she was already very happy with that.

"Yeah, it was. She'd quite drunk but very happy for us. Especially since Mia now owes her fifty dollars because she bet against us."

"I'm delighted I have her stamp of approval."

"I blocked Vivienne's number." Christian looked at her, not looking disappointed, actually looking quite happy. "I know I should have done it a long time ago but with this? I can't have her hanging over my head. I need to put you and Evie first and I think that this is what's best for all of us." Christian kissed her on the cheek.

"I think you've done the right thing. I moved on from her, it's about time you managed to do the same."

* * *

AN: Somehow I knew you'd all be quite happy with the last chapter! Updates for the next couple of days might be a little more scattered than usual, I'm going to try to put one out tomorrow morning but I am travelling for the next couple of days and seeing friends and family when I get home so it might be longer between updates than usual. As usual thank you for follows, favourites, and reviews! Please do write a line or two and let me know how you're enjoying this, I love hearing from you!


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